<rant>
It’s been a very interesting summer around here. I’m headed into the most important semester of my undergraduate career. The M.Sc. application process, several projects at school, a full class schedule, and the pressure to stay on the dean’s list with a 3.5+ GPA all await me.
I have been working for the Marine Sciences Department (my usual IT job), plus two projects with three different professors. I also went on a one week cruise with one of the same professors on an unrelated project. Mad juggling while dancing on a bed of nails is the phrase that comes to mind, but somehow it’s been exciting and intellectually rewarding. Fortunately, it’s working out well, even with a case of kidney stones thrown in just to clog the gears up!
And that’s where things get a little too interesting. I missed 2 weeks of work in July because of the kidney stones. Being on the VA medical care system has its drawbacks, the worst of which is that they seem to be extremely hesitant to schedule urology appointments or use 21st century diagnostic tests, like ultrasound or CT scans, until you are totally incapacitated.
After that 2 week period (and many, many litres of water) everything seemed better, just dull aches, so I charged right on ahead. I had my physical a few weeks later, but the doctor couldn’t schedule a urology appointment unless I was currently unable to pass a stone. Since the stones seemed to have cleared, the VA said no meds and no appointment. Quite frankly, I was OK with that, since I only wanted to charge ahead with everything else on my plate.
Last Tuesday I had a meeting with one of my bosses so we could review the PSA I compiled for him from some research work he recently did. On the drive in to the meeting the pain came back with a vengeance. I got through the meeting. Fortunately, he loved the PSA and we identified some minor work to do on both the PSA and a longer form video, but it should be no problem to finish.
After the meeting, I told my IT job boss what was up and headed home. I was unable to do much Tuesday or Wednesday. By Thursday night I was doubled over and in so much pain, I actually threw up. The next morning I had had enough and called the local VA medical center. It was early afternoon when the nurse returned my call. My doctor is on vacation and the nurse couldn’t refer me to another doctor, even just to get pain meds, let alone arrange an appointment with urology. All she could offer was for me to drink lots of water and if the pain was unbearable, I should go to the Hartford VA Center emergency room. So, we ate a quick lunch and all three of us headed off to Hartford, an hour and 20 minutes away.
We made it to the Hartford VA center at about 3:30pm only to find out… they don’t have an emergency room there! Only an urgent clinic that closes at 4pm and requires an appointment. To top that off, there is no CT scan or ultrasound equipment there either. All they could do was offer me pain meds and apologetically give me directions to the West Haven Medical Center. Arggggggghhhh!
Now we had another 40+ minute drive to get to West Haven (part of the city of New Haven), but the traffic was now Friday rush hour in one of the worst traffic corridors of CT. We got to the West Haven VA Hospital at 5 pm. I sat needlessly occupying an emergency room bed on a busy Friday night only to be told by the ER doctor 2.5 hours later that I needed to call my local VA doctor to set up a consult with the urology department.
When I told him calling my local VA doctor is what started us on this wild goose chase, he actually set up the consult for me through him. Now I have to call the urology department on Monday and try to set up an appointment. Oh, he did say the blood work showed no kidney infection. The urinalysis results hadn’t come back yet. But those tests had just been run on me for my physical. He did give me Motrin for the pain with the warning that it exacerbates bleeding (Yep, it sure does…don’t ask!) and can cause kidney damage in large doses. Great!
We finally got home at 10pm. We drove all over CT (180+ miles) and used 9 gallons of gas (~$40), along with having to eat dinner on the road. The staff at both the Hartford and the New Haven medical centers were extremely professional and compassionate, but still, it was an absolutely miserable way to spend the day.
What’s worse is that I am still not measurably better off for all the time and expense. Hopefully on Monday I will have an appointment for the very near future with urology back in New Haven, but I’m not counting on that. Last time I needed a consult like that, it took over two months to get it set up.
I can’t miss any more work. I have a meeting with one boss Monday morning for final approval of the videos before he leaves for his meeting overseas. I have a meeting with another boss later that morning about a research project and possible grad school opportunities. But I can’t afford to overdo it or I’m flat on my back again.
</rant>
There are a couple of posts in the works for Eclectic Echoes, including an up beat post about the Art Festival, Jr. scientist and hopefully more garden news.
