Lead-In to Anesthesia Fun

Well, I had my surgery yesterday. I was told to arrive by 12:00, and my surgery was scheduled for 1:30. I got to the surgery center at about 11:50 (I was nervous) and got in to my pre-op room by 12:30. Then it was a parade of people. My pre-op nurse, Gwen, checked my history, made sure that even though he wasn't there with me all afternoon, my husband was picking me up after my procedure, etc. The security guy came to take my wallet, checkbook, keys, and phone. Oh how I missed my phone. The anesthesiologist talked to me about anesthesia. The resident came in to tell me that she would be in the room as well as the doctor.

Then came the screeching tires. The surgical nurse and I were talking about the procedure and I said that yes, the doctor had talked to me about both the laproscopy and the HSG. She tilted her head at me and said that they had only set up the HSG. WTF? My doctor was finishing up his last surgery and running a little late, so we had to wait for him to finish that.

The doctor came in and was floored. He said when he saw the orders, he asked the staff if they were sure I only wanted the HSG and they said yes. I of course said no, that wasn't what I said. In fact, I had to explain to them 1000 times what was happening. He was PISSED. Like almost cussing pissed. And this is a really mellow kid of guy. We talked, he said he would make some calls to see about if we could still go ahead with the original plan. While he made calls, I thought through whether I wanted to do just the HSG. In my mind, I had pretty much decided to go through with the other procedure. I had taken off work after all. However, he came in and said that the OR and anesthesia staff all were able to do the procedure. His office (and I could hear that conversation THROUGH the door) said it looked like there was no reason my insurance would balk at the other procedure. I hope/assume they started making those calls yesterday.

This reassures my feeling that, when it comes to things that are not "normal," there are members of his staff who are clueless. He indicated that he assumed he would lose me as a patient after this, and that he would suggest I see the person his wife sees. My problem is two-fold. First, as a doctor I REALLY like him. He makes me feel at ease, and he always remembers stuff about me. Second, the NURSES who I talk to on the phone are always super nice and follow up when they say they will. ::sigh::

I think that's a big enough block of text for today. Surgery tomorrow.