I'm amazed you've been holding up so well considering all of this (I'd be a complete ill-functioning mess if it were me). Your situation is not only frustrating as hell, but scary too.

Best of luck. My fingers are crossed.

Ugh, I hear you.

I have had all sorts of reasons to go to the doctor in the five days I haven't had proof of insurance.

It would seem that compassion, urgency, and bedside manner are not terms in hospital vocabularies anymore. I have spent countless hours in waiting rooms, on hold, and in arguments dealing with insurance issues, medical personnel, and bureaucracy for my own health problems. It is daunting and discouraging. I wish you the best of luck in getting things dealt with and regarding your diagnosis.

Good luck with your pursuit and don't give up, even if confronted by the annoying roadblocks. When chasing an annoying health problem years ago, i found it best to get copies of all my health records and carry them around from one doc to the next. Do not depend on docs to route results to a referred physician.
I'd love to believe our current prez as he called for 'an electronic health record in 10 years' back in 2004. I'll believe it when i see it.

I feel your pain.

Just a thought: maybe they are only cysts. I have had this happen several times. "Lumps" show up on mammograms and ultrasounds; and when I go in for the big biopsy (gulp)... they've already disappeared again.

Kind of like pimples, you know?

Anyway, hope the vodka helps in the meantime.

Urgh. Hope it gets sorted without further fuss. It must be a nightmare having to have health insurance.

Oh ICK. Hang in there. I'm sending you good vibes from the tropics.

K.

Have you ever gotten a chance to watch scrubs on NBC? It's currently off-season and there are no re-runs playing, but when it comes back I would recommend it if you've never seen it. One of my favorite shows.

It always makes me want to work in a hospital, but then I realize that hospitals are not the same as the one in Scrubs, and it makes me sad.

Not to bother you so much with comments-- but I completely forgot to tell you.

Tibi, our eldest cat who is always on the verge of going to "the big litter box in the sky", has taken to getting sloppy on grooming herself, causing matting in her fur and awkward smells. We trimmed her hair, and she is a changed cat. The arthritis still bothers her, but she's not half as hot as she was before and it has affected her in a very positive way. We didn't want to spring for any special clippers, razors, etc. so we went with a pair of household scissors and steady hands (so as not to clip her skin). She looks a little funny, but is very happy now =).

Sometimes not having to have health insurance stinks, too =/ In the armed forces, the turnover and deployment rate on docs is so high, it can take weeks to get some kinds of appointments, and they don't want to make referrals. If your situation isn't obviously killing you, you're put at the end of the line even if reality is that you'd die/lose a leg/ etc without treatment.

Too bad it's such a pro-profit, not pro-health system, whether it's capitalistic, socialized, or otherwise.

Sending positive energy your way!

I cannot tell you how much trouble I had trying to get my mother's doctors to communicate. It seems many people encounter this. My advice is to try and stay on top of your PCP, who should be the one coordinating everything.

Ugh! red tape sucks and bedside manner seems to be a thing of ht past as one who is constantly at a docotrs office due to illness I feel your pain

scroll down a bit to videos and click on the title.

If you'd like to see a pretty good quality episodes of SCRUBS my fave as well I guess you would copy and paste this link to your search engine
Enjoy

I think your blog is very interesting:)
Feel better

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=scrubsfan26

Thomas broke his foot last August, and after a 'fun' visit to the Emergency room I had a wonderful time 1)Finding a doctor that accepted Thomas' health insurance 2)Making an appointment for a follow-up/getting a cast put on and 2)Getting a referal from his pediatrician. Finally got it all sorted out and am sitting in the Dr.'s office and the woman behind the counter tells me they never got the referal from the insurance company... or the referal was for a doctor in the practice that was different from the one we were going to see... it was all really confusing and I'm still not sure to this day what the problem was. But I got on the phone with the Customer service rep of the Insurance company and after trying several times to explain the situation, that I was IN the doctor's office, that my son's foot was BROKEN, that he needed a CAST put on today not tomorrow, etc. the rep had the gall to tell me, "Why are you yelling at me? Maybe you should be taking care of your son if he broke his foot." When I asked to speak to her supervisor, she said, "Ok, please hold" and hung up on me. Oh the joys!

I second the keeping copies of all your records and carry them with you... but how often do drs even share your own records with you? Good luck, and don't procrastinate any longer than evil insurance company makes you.

I'm sorry to hear of your situation. I know a little bit of what that's like: going to doctor after doctor, having procedure after procedure, over nine-plus months, and still no diagnosis.

It's confirmed my feeling that having digitized medical records would ease these anxious situations. Yes, there are the privacy/security fears and HIPAA regulations to contend with, but think of how much good such a system could offer. You show up at some new medical office and immediately they can pull up your history and all pertinent info. Fewer forgotten dates, less slipping through the cracks, less confusion ...

that sucks!

as much as i LOVE the notion of universal healthcare, I often think that it would be worse and more of a bureacratic disaster than dealing with insurance.

i wish you the best.. and ask that you concentrate on the doc who assured you that it was nothing to worry about.

This situation concerning mammograms, etc, is only in the NYC area.
I would go outside of Manhattan, maybe you could visit someone in Western NY or Boston. Get all of your records. There is no wait or mixup at these places.
Believe me, I know there's something wrong with women's health care there. It's unbelievable, but true.