“We Don’t Manage Illness At This Clinic”

This week was mixed.  Let’s start with the shittiest news first.  I like getting the crappiest news out of the way.

We’ve been waiting for months to get back to the big hospital to see the geneticist who was supposed to get me in to see a rheumatologist as well as a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist.  That wound up being probably the biggest waste of time of all the doctors I have seen so far.  Nephrologist #2 had apparently already called and talked to him, and apparently he understood and agreed to this plan and wanted to help me.  WELL.  Not really.  I showed up and he told me that I might be disappointed because:

“We just diagnose illness in this clinic, we don’t manage it.”

-.-

He said he would put in a call to his “friend” who happens to be a rheumatologist and ask if he would be willing to see me (but it sounded an awful lot like he honestly wasn’t going to make that call, and we aren’t counting on that).  His assistant was very nice and seemed to want to help and is going to try to get me a referral to a doctor of internal medicine there.

If she can get me a referral to primary care at the big hospital, hopefully that person can then refer me to the rheumatologist and the cardiologist and the gastroenterologist.  Basically, though, we’re not holding our breath.  They kept repeating “We don’t manage illness at this clinic,” to us.  They sounded like we were bothering them.  They were polite, but they don’t normally see people twice (as I already mentioned in the previous post.)

It’s frustrating because we weren’t seeing them for any other reason than the fact that they were an “in” with the big hospital and we were already there before, so they were our way to get referred to doctors who specialize in my conditions.  He was supposed to have already spoken with my nephrologist and yet when we showed up he seemed confused and just acted like he didn’t think that he could help me at all.  What a waste of a day.  Seriously.  It was a very disappointing appointment.  He may get us in with a doctor of internal medicine or a rheumatologist but Master Pravus and me both doubt it.

That was kind of our last shot and we need another action plan now.  We’re not giving up but we are getting very fucking frustrated with the health care in this state.  It is criminal.  I can’t believe that I have not even been seen yet by a rheumatologist.  Fucking fuck.  All of my other specialists think it is a necessity and this one was like “Hmmm, I mean.  I dunno.  Maybe.  We’ll see.  Probably not though.  K”  :/  I was feeling terrible that day already physically so having to get dressed up and navigate a huge fucking hospital that we’re both doubting anything useful will come of was probably just a giant waste.  Hooray.  But no one can say I’m not fucking trying.  Gawd.  OMGWTFBBQ.  :/

Here’s a very tired picture of me after my appointment and before we left the hospital.

I’m still having problems with Gob.  He’s kind of getting worse by the day, not better.  So, I called the other day to make an appointment finally because we both feel like I need to be seen.  Hopefully the doctor has some trick or medicine or something to help.  I didn’t make it sound too bad on the phone because I didn’t want them sending me to the ER…  Which now means my appointment is set for November 10th.  Oops.  I’m hoping I can hold out that long.  That’s another two freaking weeks and I’ve already been dealing with problems for a week!  I’ll keep doing all the things I know to do and hopefully it fixes itself on its own and maybe I can just cancel that appointment.

The Mewtique is in vacation mode until the 29th.  I always wind up having to put it in Vacation mode between whenever the Halloween shipping deadline ends and Halloween is.  If I don’t, people think they can still get things by Halloween and as much as I wish I could make that happen, I can’t.  Once I put things out the door, the post office does the rest and they can only do so much.  So, the shop has about three or four days of “vacation.”  Not that I’m not sewing.  I’m working on restocking and making new patterns and such.  Hopefully there will be at least one new thing when I reopen.  It depends on how I’m feeling and all that, but I’m working on it.  🙂

We’re feeling hopeful on the job front.  It’s not like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel or anything but there is at least a phone interview or better every day.  Last week Master Pravus had four interviews he had to dress up in his fancy suit and tie for.  I mean, it’s not like I feel like he needs to dress up to be sexy as fuck, but if he is going to dress up then I may as well enjoy seeing him in his suit and tie, amiright?!  RIGHT!  He has had a couple of second interviews and one job offer which turned out to be a contract to hire (even though we specifically said we weren’t interested in contracts to hire right now), so Master Pravus turned that down.  We need benefits.  Benefits.  Benefits.  Benefits. ::Sigh::