Taking the Bad with the Good, I guess...

[firecat88]

The good: After a week of being on Cipro for what turned out to be a pseudomonas infection, I feel better now than I have felt in over a year. The wound from my biopsy/shunt surgery has finally begun to heal properly, as has the abscess from last month. Also, I'm having way fewer problems with my sinuses.

The bad: An appointment was finally scheduled with the neurosurgeon. It was supposed to be at 2:40 tomorrow. The key words being 'was supposed to be'. It has been cancelled because the neurosurgeon apparently has to go out of town. Naturally, I only found out about this because they called my mom and told her about it instead of calling me.

[Seanette]

I wonder if their office can spell "HIPAA violation"?

[firecat88]

Part of me does understand it because my mom has been my go-between with them. She has the advantages of both advanced knowledge of all the proper medical terminology and 'knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone'.

That said, they do know I'm the patient and they do have my number. They freakin' called me just the other day to tell me that they didn't have a portion of my old records (which they did actually have it but didn't know how to access it).

[firecat88]

Well, this all took...exactly the turn I thought it would.

Saw my new neurosurgeon today. I really like him, first of all, which is nice. He seems really knowledgeable about shunts in particular. Also, he is of the 'Let's not do anything that we absolutely don't need to' mentality, which I'm all in favor of.

However, my case is such that stuff *does* need to be done. Specifically, my shunt is infected and needs to be removed. Before that, I get to have a bunch of tests done and be pumped full of antibiotics in the ICU (this process will involve my shunt being exposed for all the world to see so it can drain elsewhere).

I go in on Monday.