Can't a girl get a minute of peace and quiet? As soon as Ohio Health got Jeannie and her diagnosis in it's system the phone started ringing. Sometimes it was one of those appointment reminder calls. Or a follow up to "see how the appointment went". But all and all a deluge of calls. And always at the worst possible time. Just when she'd get the whole thing out of her head for a minute the phone would ring to remind her she has cancer. She quickly learned she was going to be screening them out with  caller id. Ohio Health et al. only have one number not the multiple numbers they'd like to have. If you're a friend and we don't answer chances are we're really not home. If you're from a health care conglomerate chances are you're going to voice mail.

Another interesting aspect was getting a message saying an appointment had been set, without prior consultation with the patient. This cause great consternation and impatience with the patient, who's taken a decided attitude that she's a person fitting cancer into her life rather than fitting her life into what others think it should be. Her years of experience in health care has also led her to answers that are inconvenient for others. This past Thursdays installation of an IV port is an example. They like to pretty much knock you out with a twilight sleep much like they did to women in labor back in the 50s, until women rebelled when they realized they'd given birth to a child they'd lugged around for nine months and couldn't remember a thing about the event. Jeannie knew this was a 15 minute surgical procedure that could be done with a local anesthetic. Nobody seemed to think this could be done with a local until they checked with the surgeon, who had no problem with it. Now the anesthesiology group that lost out on an easy paycheck, well they might have been another story. But what they don't know won't hurt them. Or maybe they just need to ice the pain.

The day of the procedure seemed to take more of a toll on me than the person who was actually on the operating table. We were up at four and had to be at Grant Medical Center by 5:30. The check in lady was quite pleasant. I did throw her for a loop though when she looked at me and said "and you are"? I simply responded "former boyfriend". The poor thing muttered "oh my", then started nervously shuffling whatever papers are at an otherwise electronic workstation not quite knowing what to say until i added "and then I married her and we've been together ever since". Oh, she says you must be John. Wow. Ohio Health's database has taken notice of the fact that Jeannie has a husband named John. And you were worried about the NSA reading emails and listening to phone calls.



Coming up in our next entry our first picture (perhaps). The fifteen minute surgical procedure that takes four hours. And the surgeon who's subjected to country music against his will.