Meltdown...

Ryan went out of town this week.  Juliana started back on her appetite stimulant and started projectile vomiting again.  Noah had two accidents in the night for the first time.  Needless to say it's been a draining week.  There was a brief highlight to it.  Wednesday night my dad spent the night because he needed to drive to and from Indianapolis on Thursday, so he entertained the kids for a couple hours before bed while I did laundry and made Noah's bed and got the kids' stuff ready for Thursday.

Ever since Juliana's visit to Children's Memorial we have been trying to schedule a Gastric Emptying Study.  In our discharge papers from the hospital it said if we didn't hear from Radiology within 3 days we were to call ourselves.  Of course we never heard from Radiology, so when I called, I was told the order was never put in the computer.  I called the doctor and left a somewhat nasty message, of course it was a Friday, so I knew no one would get back to me that day.  Last week a nurse called back and said if Juliana wasn't projectiling anymore then she didn't need to have the test.  Well, it had been 3 weeks since her last projectile episode, so we didn't need to schedule the test.  This past Sunday we re-started her appetite stimulant (she has to go off of it when her appetite decreases since her body gets used to it), and on Monday she began to projectile again.  I called the doctor's office and phone tag started again.

Yesterday the nurse called me back and left me a message assuring me that the order was in the computer and all I had to do was call the number she left on the machine to schedule the appointment.  I copied the number down last night.  Today as soon as my plan period started, I dialed the number.  The first person I talked to had never even heard of the type of test I was asking about and transferred me to the nurse's department.  I waited on hold for about 10 minutes.  The nurse was fairly helpful.  She asked me several questions but could not find the order in the computer.  I think she could hear the frustration in my voice as I forced myself to be pleasant.  She put me on hold several times while she tried to sort out the mess and she even called the doctor's office for me.  After 30 minutes (so now 40 minutes of my 56 minute plan period is gone) she found the order and told me she couldn't set up the appointment but Radiology could and she would transfer me to that department.  She even gave me the number in case we got disconnected.  I waited on hold with Radiology for 5 minutes until I got a human being.  This one was not as nice as the nurse.  She told me there was no order in the computer.  I asked her how that could be when the nurse I was speaking to before her had been able to find it.  So after another few minutes she found the order but then proceeded to tell me that she couldn't schedule the appointment. 

"You've gotta be kidding me," I said.  "Why the heck not?"  She said that the order was in the computer but the doctor's office had not released the order.  "What in the world does that mean?" I asked, trying to keep my temper.  Basically it meant that I needed to call the doctor's office and tell them to release the order.  I looked at the clock.  I had about 6 minutes left before my plan period was up.  I dialed the doctor's office, pushed all the buttons to get to a nurse, but of course I got voice mail.  I left as civilized a message as I could explaining that I have been trying to schedule this appointment for 3 weeks and could they please just release the order and hung up the phone.

I put my head down and my frustration got the best of me and I started to cry.  Fortunately the only people in the office were Lauren and Tino.  When Lauren asked me what was wrong and I started to tell her, these words I never use came out.  I don't often swear and I never use the "f" word, but today as I melted down those words came out of my mouth and while I felt better at the time, I am still embarrassed that I let my guard down to let those words come out.  Then, of course, the bell rang and I had to compose myself to go to class.  At least it's Friday and Ryan comes home tonight.