My current case has included 10-12 tests (e.g., biopsies, MRIs, CTs, X-rays, multiple blood and urine workups, other nuclear medicine scans taking days), plus at least 17 appointments with at least 10 doctors in 6 different medical facilities spread over 230 miles under three different “HMOs” (VA, primary insurance, and secondary insurance). We coordinated every step with the appropriate HMO in advance, made sure my records made each appointment (hand-carrying if necessary, especially with visits an hour apart or 230 miles apart), brought my X-rays and MRIs and CTs and OctreoScan and multiple biopsy results with me to each new physician, made sure new docs had previous biopsy samples if they wanted to re-evaluate them, proposed to two surgeons in different departments that they combine two surgeries related only by their anatomical proximity in my abdomen (the internet revealed both surgeries used the same incision) so I had to get opened up only once, made sure each physician’s office had the direct phone numbers of my other physicians’ offices if they had any reason to confer with them, kept up with very confusing billing and payments -- and, oh yeah – had two major surgeries performed at once . . . all in about ten weeks. That would have taken half a year, maybe much more, if I had just let it happen spontaneously, and neither of my problems had that much time to spare.
Not one hospital, lab, or HMO receptionist or records clerk, nor one technician, nurse, general practitioner, specialist, or surgeon complained about my active participation in this entire process. On the contrary; almost every physician and several nurses and techs praised my efforts. Three physicians said their jobs would be far easier if everyone was this prepared. A few have asked what field of medicine I practice in, until discussion quickly revealed the extent and sources of my knowledge: I had stayed at Holiday Inn last night, reading the books and internet data I had gathered. If you can follow my monthly column, you can duplicate my research. If you can figure out and include what your providers need to know (your medical history and symptoms) and leave out what they don’t need (your mother-in-law’s personality), and can write it up succinctly, it will help the doctors quickly ask the right additional questions and move towards a solution. Both your body and your doctors appreciate expediency.
When I first phoned the VA – my socialized medicine HMO -- with my initial problem, two appointments got set up: an initial fact-finding appointment the next month and a follow-up initial consultation with a specialist in three months. I saw months of delay coming, got involved, and got my case from a suspicious annual blood test result to dual major surgeries all before that initial specialist consult was even scheduled to occur. Under government-run socialized medicine I’d have been doomed even worse than I am already by socialized medicine.
