Well it's Saturday night and I figured I should talk about how my first encounter with the infamous UPMC went. We got up there at 8:30. God only knows why my husband and father in law decided that I needed to be up there that early. Remember from my previous post my appointment was for 10:30 but the surgeon wanted me to be there an hour early so I could have a repeat ultrasound performed before I saw her. Now as we all know, appointments are never on time. Funny thing is the doctor can be an hour late and that is just fine, but if you are more than 15 minutes late you must reschedule and expect to receive a bill for the visit anyways.
So we get there at 8:30 and wait.... And wait. And I think around 9:50 they finally call me back for my ultrasound which took about 15 minutes. They told me they were specifically looking for my lymph nodes because the u/s I had done at city either did not include my lymph nodes or forgot to mention them, so we must look for the lymph nodes. When the doctor was done he mentioned what a difficult exam it was due to the size of my thyroid which was a little discouraging. Then we were sent back out to the waiting to wait some more.
Finally at about 11:40 doctor Carty's nurse finally called me back! Praise Jesus! It was finally MY turn. Lets get this show on the road, I am so ready. They brought me back to a tiny exam room where there was no seating for anyone. In this room was myself, my husband, my FIL, and the RN. She does all the basics, weight, height, BP, temp blah blah blah. Then she asks how I found out about my cancer. Which is always an interesting story. Have we discussed that? If not I will get to that later, anyways after the nurse leaves in comes dr Carty's NP and like I said there's no room/ no seating in this exam room so she is sitting on the sharps container across from me. Examines my neck and starts to tell me stuff I already know you need to have your thyroid removed. Yes I know. And she said usually its a 2 to 3in incision across your neck but in my case it might or probably will be a little bigger. Bummer. Then she said I will need radiation after which usually starts 4 to 6 weeks after surgery. Then she asked when I would like to have surgery. I said as soon as possible, I mean who would want to put something like this off. I just want to get this past me and start with my new life because right now I am scared shitless! Basically this NP did all of Dr Carty's dirty work. Then dr Carty finally came in. The first thing she said was "what can I do for you today" and I replied "well I have thyroid cancer and I would like it removed" straight to the point that's how I operate lol to make a long story short she examined me I gave her my history blah blah blah. Now when we got to the part about my MTHFR mutation that almost put a complete stop to my surgery altogether. I was like damnit! Why must I have so much shit wrong with me. The MTHFR as far as I knew only affected me during pregnancy and I only had to be put on aspirin and folic acid. Thank goodness I'm not one of those that has to give themselves heparin injections. So dr Carty was like I need to see this from your OB or you need to see a hematologist and this is going to push the surgery back another week, and I'm just like ok. In the mean time let's do some pre op testing. Yes! Poked and prodded. Now mind you I'm in the 3rd floor of the Faulk building. They are now sending me over to the 5th floor of the Montiefure sp? Building for bloodwork, and to see an anesthesiologist for clearance. Then while I'm doing that I get a phone call they want me to have a cat scan of my neck, well I have to go to the 1st floor of the Presbyterian building. Now mind you these buildings are all about a block or so away from each other.... a Pittsburgh block! Lol
By the time we leave the hospital it's like 4pm. Still no records from my ob, damn them! I'm whooped, I'm hungry, I need a glass of wine. Pit stop at the Olive Garden if I don't mind. Until the next day.
The next morning UPMC calls me to tell me my ct was go and dr Carty will see me in the OR as long as we get the labs from my OB. Well it's time we me to light a fire under their asses now isn't it? And that's exactly what I said to the woman on the phone at UPMC. Lol so I called out to my ob and said I need my medical records faxed to this dr, I need surgery. Oh your records are at our other office. I called their other office and tell them the same thing . Here they were trying to send labs dr Carty already had that just pertained to my thyroid. I said no they want to know about m MTHFR mutation, oh well Nikki doesn't have anything like that in your chart. The hell if she doesn't , she is the one who ordered this test back in 2008. Oh they want the records from back that far she said. Well yes I said. She was like well I will see what I can find. Frustrated I knew she wasn't going to be any help. I got off the phone with her and called my high risk ob's office and asked if they still had my records. I told them I had cancer and I need surgery but the surgeon would not operate on me until they got these certain records. Now I knew they could not fax it the surgeon but they could fax it to my ob who could fax it to my surgeon. Well about an hour later I got a call from dr Carty's off she got the paperwork. Finally!!! Surgery is a go for this Tuesday. So my plan must have worked, but dr Carty still wants me to see a hematologist inApril. Even though my mutation is not going to affect my thyroid surgery, better to be safe than sorry I guess. Maybe I will learn something. Who knows. Now we just wait for surgery. More waiting.....
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