Mom gained a LOT of weight after her divorce (from my dad) 37 years ago. About the time I was in high school (25-ish years ago) my grandmother started hounding my mom about her stomach sticking out so far. Mom did a lot of shrugging it off cuz, afterall, she WAS fat. The first time I remember her asking a dr about her stomach (stomachE?) was back in the mid 80's, maybe 1986 or so. Her Dr told her she was "just fat" and she should lose weight. (duh) About 12 years ago or so, she started noticing that her "fat" was hard and it was uncomfortable to sleep and she couldn't sit at a booth in a restaurant. She had a new dr at that time so she asked him. He told her she was "just fat." Last summer she went in for a mammogram and they found a small lump-- nothing exciting, just calcification. But she had to have a biopsy. She got referred to a different clinic for the biopsy and when the P.A. saw her, he asked her "how long have you had that hard stomach?" He suggested she have a CT scan. PROBLEM: Mom does not have insurance. Yikes! She sees a nurse practitioner at a local walk in clinic.... so she goes back to him and tells him what the biopsy guy says. HE says, "you don't have insurance! CT scan costs $4,000! Nothing is wrong with you! You're just fat! FAT FAT FAT!" Well, Mom happened to mention this to one of her clients (mom does massage) who informed Mom that SHE happens to be a Nurse Practitioner at the SAME clinic Mom's been going to! Mary told Mom to come see HER and they'd figure something out. Mom got an ultrasound which cost a fairly reasonable $160, which ruled out any sort of hernia and revealed a "large mass." Mary got serious about pushing through some paperwork and next thing we know, Mom's getting a CT Scan... gets referred to a surgeon who refers her to a cardiologist, and an OB GYN... and we spend the next 4 months expecting her to be scheduled for surgery. Then, the surgeon we thought would be doing the surgery tells Mom, "we're referring you to Stanford, there's not a facility in the valley that's equiped to deal with a tumor this size." So we sit around and wait for Stanford to call... except they don't. So Mary (the FNP who got the ball rolling) calls to ask Mom what her status is-- Mom tells her we're still waiting to hear from Stanford. Mary calls Stanford-- guess what? No one ever sent Stanford Mom's paperwork! So MARY sits by the damn fax machine all day WHILE SHE"S ON THE PHONE WITH STANFORD, then she calls Mom and tells Mom that "Shelly (or whatever her name really was) from Stanford will be calling..." *BEEP BEEP* goes Mom's call waiting ...!!! Serously. We came up here last week for Mom's consultation and surgery we got the call Monday with the surgery date! All I can say is: If you EVER ask your doctor a question-- make sure it gets noted in your chart!
Maggie Franklin: Attitudes Salon; Visalia, CA Now Blogging for Nails Magazine online! http://blogs.nailsmag.com/maggie/ http://www.nailsbymaggie.biz "Visionary rebel dreamer; obviously way ahead of my time." --- On Fri, 2/27/09, Pati <[email protected]> wrote: From: Pati <[email protected]> Subject: NailTech:: Re: over the heartbreak...update on Mom To: [email protected] Date: Friday, February 27, 2009, 8:17 PM Maggie, I am so glad everything went well! I just read the first post so i thought it was tomorrow (sat) that they were doing the surgery! (I am easily confused these days LOL) That's great news that the tumor was only attached to 1 ovary and they got it out intact! Now...how could they possible miss this all these years?? Did the Dr say it was 25 years old? Glad she is doing so well.... Pati Everyone has a photographic memory. Some, like me, just don't have any film. -----Original Message----- From: Maggie in Visalia <[email protected]> To: 1Nail Tech list <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 7:28 pm Subject: NailTech:: over the heartbreak...update on Mom Someday I will have to figure out public wifi systems...meanwhile, Mom went into surgery at 1:30... got word awhile ago that all is well. I'm just hanging out waiting for them to put her into recovery so I can hang out with her. The tumor came out in tact (yay) and it was attached to her left ovary-- so she only lost one. And they took her gallbladder too-- what the heck, ya know? She did well, all we have to do now is get her back up and running and get her incision healed up-- then she can get that uber-cool medi-tech certification and get back to work! Thank you, everyone, for warm wishes and prayers. BTW: pay no attention when my original post finally DOES come through! (shrug) It's in my "sent" folder, but it hasn't posted to the list. Go figure. Maggie Franklin: Attitudes Salon; Visalia, CA Now Blogging for Nails Magazine online! http://blogs.nailsmag.com/maggie/ http://www.nailsbymaggie.biz "Visionary rebel dreamer; obviously way ahead of my time." A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/NailTech?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
