Bowel Obstruction #5

Tuesday, April 19, 2001  7:15 pm
    Upon getting home from the hospital and the Price (and hours) Chopper, I take the laxative and decide to devote the next day to the consequences of that act. I turn off my cell phone. When the next day ends, I don't feel so bloated. Thursday, I turn my phone back on and start answering calls in order. Paul Stanchfield, PA, leaves a message saying he called last week and left a message saying my X-rays were normal. I don't believe him because I picked up the X-ray orders from him at the receptionists' desk Thursday afternoon, took them right over to the hospital, had my X-rays, and was told by Brandy, the tech, that it would take 48 hours for Paul to get them. Unless the X-rays were received at Physician's Group on Saturday (it is not open on Saturdays) and Paul were there, there's no way he could have gotten the X-rays last week. Plus, his supposed response was suspect: the X-rays were normal. Bye. That's it? Was I expected to tell that to me lack of a bowel movement but only pellets and the bloated stomach and the slight stomach ache, and they were all supposed to shape up? What was the next step, Paul?
    Paul also said I should go through Mark, and it was all right if I didn't want to, but I should anyway. Well, that's very accomodating. I should be content with being rude to by Mark? Paul said that if messages went through receptionists, they tended to get lost. Not in my experience. The receptionists are very dependable.
    Then I listen to a message by Rena who says she transmitted my prescription to Walmart on Tuesday night and had a written confirmation of a successful transmission. I don't see how that's possible unless Walmart was wrong.
    I call Jodi Dodge, administrator, back. She throws me a very small bone by agreeing it was rude of Paul not to introduce the young woman with the machine. I would have said nothing about it if Mark hadn't been so rude to me. As I've said, he refused to answer a direct question -next time, I won't let him get away with it- and then after he pored silently over his laptop a minute or so, he got up and left without saying a word to me. I read the WSJ daily and listen to John Bachelor at night. I am very worried about the Islamic Caliphate that Obama has allowed to happen by his "lead from behind" approach. We're behind alright! Was it the last caliphate that almost conquered Europe, only being stopped in France? When Nurse Mark abruptly and silently left, I wondered if he had read a "bomb in the building!" alert and wasn't just leaving me behind. I listened to hear if other staff were leaving the ship too, just forgetting about the patients so they wouldn't have to compete with them on the stairs and in the elevator. I didn't hear anybody sneaking away out in the hall though. So I was very much on edge when PA Paul and the very young lady with the machine in her hands came in.
    I  tell Jodi that I wanted to try to work with Mark and Paul. I had always found Mark a little prissy, but knew I had my own inimitable style too. I liked Paul's seriousness even if he did push my Chronic Kidney Disease Stage 11 harder than Dr. Rinder did. I tell her I hope we can all work together again.  I tell Jodi I didn't expect we would have the same problems again. When I get home, I get a call from Rena who identifies herself as Paul's scribe. I'm tired of being so assertive and don't ask what "scribe" means in her context.  She says she's heard that there was a problem with my insurance and the Paxil. I say there's no problem, that when I got the Paxil, I just took it and ran. She sounded very nice, and I didn't think we'd have any more problems.
     Peter Nickerson, Philosophy Major, Class of '68, William and Mary
     MS at VCU, 1975 and MSW at NSU, 1993