I

Can

Only

Speak

My

Mind

Grab a drink and get ready

February 14, 2007 - 7:57 p.m.

Happy Valentines Day

I hope it's been better for you than it has been for me. As usual, hubby is gone. Tomorrow is a Nascar Race too close for him to not attend. Especially since his favorite driver came out of retirement and qualified really good.

I got a really nice plant in a darling planter from him this morning and a super sweet card. I got him a hot card, air fresheners for his truck (inside joke between us) new clothes for his new position and the tickets for tomorrows race. I sort of owed him from Christmas. I got him crap (so to speak) and I got this laptop.

I thought the day was going to go pretty well considering he would be picking up my car at noon so he could take it on his trip. Then I made the mistake of calling my neuro's office to let them know I'm scheduled to have my spot removed.

They assigned me to this new girl, Andrea. I really have tried to be understanding and work with her but today she pushed me over the edge. I was so upset that I had to call hubby to have him calm me down and stop crying. He told me to call the coordinator, Darlene and request to be changed to a different person. I'm going to have to see Andrea every time I go to the office and didn't want to have to do that. Besides, I didn't want her to "get in trouble" if I was being unreasonable.

Yes, I'm admitting it, I can be unreasonable. That's where hubby comes in. I call him, 'splain the 'sitchiation' and how I'm reacting, then he tells me what I should do and either calms me down or riles me up more!

So today, he calms me enough to go back to my desk and attempt to get some work done just in time for Andrea to call me to tell me when my appt for my MRI is.

Fine. Whatever. Thanks, good-bye.

Not 10 minutes later, she calls again to give me more appointments.

WTF?

"Your baseline appt is for Monday, March 5th at 9am and your randomization appt is for Wednesday, March 7th at 9am."

Huh? What is a randomization appt and does it have to be on Mon and Wed, those are the worst days for me to miss work, but if those are the only days I can be scheduled can they be in the afternoon?

Her explanation of what a randomization appt is was as lame as they come. I didn't have a freaking clue what I was going in for. She said she'd see if she could schedule Monday afternoon and call me back but Wednesday was the 8 hour appointment.

It was about that time when my cell phone cut off, thankfully. But no, she called me right back complaining that we were disconnected and that Monday's appt could be in the afternoon, but not Wed.

That's when I started flipping. I asked when the other appts were going to be scheduled. The ones I didn't find out I would have to go to until I went in to the pulmonologist. Did she realize that in addition to working full time I had 2 teenage kids that I had things to schedule around and other things. When would I be told how often I'd have to go in for the other appts?

I guess I rubbed her the wrong way because her response was, "Well it's all in the paperwork you signed."

Okay beeotch, you just pushed the wrong button.

I told her I would have to deal with this later because I needed to get back to my job. She didn't want to hear it and I just kept repeating that. I packed up my stuff, clocked out and came home.

I pulled out all the paperwork I signed and went through it to find out just what I missed when I read it in their office.

Yep, just exactly what I thought, not in there!

I called Darlene, all worked up, still semi crying from stress and told her how upset I was about Andrea's responses to me and that I just left work to come home and find out what she insinuated I should already know.

Darlene, offered to take over so I wouldn't have to deal with Andrea anymore; explained exactly what appointments were necessary, the time frame for them all, how long they would take and what would be involved. Exactly what Andrea was supposed to have done way back at my first appointment with her in January.

Darlene also scheduled my appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays and promised that the next ones in West Palm Beach would be scheduled on the same day so I wouldn't have to drive up there 2 different times.

What a huge difference. I explained to her that I had to be in this study because of Squeak. I had to do something proactive for his peace of mind. It made such a difference to be dealing with someone professional who understands that I'm not at their beck and call. I'm helping to further research by choice. I deserve some respect and decent explanations.

Oh yeah, a randomization appointment is when someone in the research division, but not assigned to me, determines which meds I get. The real thing or the placebo. Why couldn't Andrea say that? My guess, she didn't know.

So I started this entry at 5:59. It is now 7:49. What took me so long? Way back about 7 paragraphs ago, I got a call from one of my sis inlaws. My nephew, who lives on the West coast but goes to school over here on the East coast 2 nights a week broke down and has a midterm. Could I possibly take him to school?

Of course. I wouldn't dream of not helping out. It was an adventure all by itself! What a day.

I need to post this, reheat my dinner, hug Fred and Squeak, find Diva and then crawl into bed. Maybe I'll post the rest of this chaos tomorrow. If you're lucky, I won't!

Either way, I feel better knowing I don't have to deal with Andrea;, Jay made it to his destination, hubby made it to the race, will call me when he gets to his parents and I got this all off my chest by writing it here.

Ah, the joy of speaking my mind!