Posted March 31st, 2003 by Michelle

So I spent a total of six hours in emergency rooms over the weekend. At the end of those six hours, I was told that they couldn’t help me, that I had to wait until Monday and make an appointment to have surgery. So this morning I called at 8:30 AM and was told that before I could even schedule surgery, I had to get a referral from my primary doctor. Huh. So then I called my primary doctor, and after waiting on hold for about twenty minutes, I was told that I could get a referral over the phone. So I was transferred to the referral extension, where I waited another five minutes or so, and I told them what I needed. I was asked if the doctor knew what was wrong. No, I said, I’ve never even met the doctor but that I was told I could get a referral over the phone. No, she said, I had to see the doctor first. I was transferred back to the appointment person, who I eventually found out was at the desk NEXT to the referral person. So. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at noon, after which I can make an appointment to see this certain doctor at the Brooklyn hospital, who will then tell me if he, or someone else, is able to do the surgery.

Needless to say, I was in tears of frustration as I limped through my morning sidework. The pain wasn’t really bad until the tail end (ugh) of my shift, at which point it was bad enough to skip my mandatory EMS meeting and come home. I actually bought some ibuprofen, finally, so hopefully I will be in la-la no pain land soon. And I met a terrific couple at work today- they own a restaurant in the Carribean, and are promoting their newest cookbook, and I jokingly brought up the fact that the two restaurants should have an exchange program. When I went back to the table, they were talking about this idea in earnest, saying that I could come over for a month, and stay in their beach house, and teach their staff a thing or two about service. God… a month in the Carribean… umm, okay. I would not say no to that.