In which I was patronized and pissed off, or maybe I was just crabby

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

I take some things seriously that I never did before. One of the things I am now taking seriously is some chronic pain I've had in my lower left abdomen (sometimes lower back) for quite some time now. It only really hurts in certain positions, and kinda comes and goes in terms of severity, so I never thought too much of it, but since being diagnosed with cancer I tend to think everything could be a tumor. So when I saw my oncologist before my last chemo treatment, I brought this up. She asked a couple of questions about it, and said that her suspicion was low, but that it was worth checking out for peace of mind and that she'd order a CT scan.

I hadn't heard anything back about scheduling, so I called in this morning. There was no order on file, but the lady I talked to did seem to have notes about the kind & location of pain I was having, so there's a record that conversation that took place. She said she'd talk to the nurse & the doctor, get an order and get me scheduled. Fine, all good. SO then I get a call back a few minutes ago from one of the nurses, and she basically acted like nothing had ever been said about a CT scan, and she actually said this: "Why do we think we need one?" Umm, excuse me, but WE think we need one because WE talked to OUR doctor and she agreed it was worth checking into. WE (meaning I) didn't make this up. So maybe WE (meaning you) should quit talking to me like I'm some kind of hypochondriac idiot.

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Edited to add:
The same nurse did call me back to schedule the scan, was very nice about it, and didn't seem patronizing at all, so maybe I'm just cranky. :-P