Rant #3,253: How Long

I am back, but still broken, at least right now.

I had my pre-op session with the hospital, I had my latest MRI, and today, I will have my meeting with my regular doctor to get the OK for my surgery, slated for Wednesday, December 20.

The road has been a bit bumpy getting to this point.

First, I spent about three hours on the phone early last week trying to ascertain why I wasn't getting the necessary permissions to get the surgery in the first place.

I went from my doctor/surgeon's office to the insurance company to the place where I was scheduled to get the MRI, and all I was able to get was as much double talk as I had heard in my entire life.

Finally, I was told by the doctor's office that my insurance company had rejected the claim, and that my doctor was going to have to have what is called a "peer-to-peer" meeting over the phone with the insurance company to get them to change their mind--all the while I had the surgery date set in stone!

The doctor was successful, and in the evening, I found out that the insurance company agreed to the surgery request, and I was only in need of the pre-op, the MRI, and the meeting with my regular doctor to have everything in place for surgery #2.

The pre-op went well, and on Thursday, I had the MRI.

First off, they kept me waiting in the waiting room for st lesst 15 minutes past my appointment while I was in lots of discomfort.

When I finally was called in, they set me up for the MRI, asked me what music I wanted--rock--and slid me into the device.

I heard approximately one millisecond of music, and the sound went blank.

In fact, when they spoke to me through the headphones, the communication was extremely garbled, and since I could not really make out what they were saying, I just kept on telling them I was OK. 

I think I told them thst the music was not on, but whatever the case, I laid there in this thing for an hour with nothing.

I had to do something, so I kind if self-hypnotized myself, thinking of every TV theme song I could think of and remember, everything from "The Andy Griffith Show" to "Gomer Pyle USMC," and literally everything in between.

After doing this for about an hour, I was finally done, they slid me out and I told them about what I had gone through, and there was pretty much no response.

I told them that I self-hypnotized myself, and again, nothing.

I did receive a survey in my email about the MRI, and I complained through that source.

So, for the last few days, I have been sitting here, watching lots of TV, doing whatever work I could do on the computer, and pretty much vegging out, waiting for Wednesday to come so I can finally be on the road to putting this nightmare that keeps on giving in my family and my rear view mirror.

I am bored, but quite frankly, I can live without another operation to perk things up a bit.

This one will hopefully be it!

In the meantime, I have been told not to open any closets and/or drawers, and I will stick with those warnings, because I am afraid st what is going to pop out on me the next time around.

I will next speak to you on Thursday, the day after my second operation on my quad and most importantly, the first day of the rest of my life.

Speak to you then, and please keep me in your prayers.