My patience level

I am not very patient these days. Well, call me a not very patient patient. I don't like waiting around - especially for medical stuff (unless under sedation and then its very different).

After surgery on Friday, they said they will schedule a follow up with the surgeon in two to three weeks. I thought - that's kind of a long time (because I will have steri strips for the duration) - but maybe you need to heal more after this kind of surgery. Who am I to know? I am a mere patient and not a medical professional. They also told me that the pathology report on my gall bladder would probably take 5-7 days and I would get the results at my follow up appointment - unless they were 'bad' in which case, they would call me.

Monday the nurse called to see how I was doing after surgery and reiterated everything. She also said I could probably call Friday to find out when my appointment was and to ask for results of my pathology report. I thought okay, I can wait until Friday.

Yesterday, that was Wednesday (in case you lost track), I decided I couldn't wait any more. (See how patient I was?) So I called to find out when my doctor appointment was (I mean what if they made it at a CONVENIENT time). After transferring me four times and putting me on hold twice, they told me a week from Monday. I thought, hmmm... I can wait with my stupid steri strips until then.

But what about the pathology report to find out if there was anything evil lurking in my gall bladder? I asked and was told the doctor would call me back sometime yesterday. This means they had the report and the doctor has to be the one to tell you - regardless of if it is good or bad. So I got to wait. I do that so well now. I have had so much practice. I called the doctor's office about 1030 am. The doctor called me back at 7 pm!!! I figured by then he had gone for the day. Anyhow, as you have probably figured out by now it was a nice normal pathology report. (If it had been full of evil things my post would have started very differently.)

Now I have learned that doctors define normal very differently than I define normal. I had an MRI of my liver last spring and it came back with a liver hemangioma and gall stones with a recommendation for a follow MRI to make sure they were stable, blah, blah, blah, in six months. I had that MRI and the doctor left a message that my MRI was normal. Now how can the first one show stones and a hemangioma (and apparently he now has friends, I have several) and the follow up one is 'normal'? Does normal mean that I am now abnormal and it was normal on an abnormal level? Does normal mean that my hemangiomas have gone away 'pouf' and are now more? Or is normal just the generic word for 'we aren't telling you anything else because you didn't go to medical school'?

Well, what I do know is that next week I go back to see my primary care physician (because I dont have enough doctor appointments and I will ask for copies of my pathology report and recent MRI and ask for a translation of both levels of normal.