Ladies....be your own advocate

At the end of our last episode, Carlene had talked to Dr Sabbatini's clinical trial nurse and his scheduler, who gave her preliminary approval and penciled her in for a Jan 19th appointment, re the vaccine trial at MSK. Her local gyn/oncologist's office promised to fax over her records ASAP. (That was for the edification of anyone who might have missed the back story.)

Having heard zilch from NYC by this afternoon, I called them back. Is anyone surprised that they had not received my file? So I called the young lady whose job it is to take care of those things, the one who had e-mailed me the release form on Wed (which I promptly signed and returned). "Did you fax my records to Dr Sabbitini?" I asked. No, she hadn't. But she would do it today, she said. "I thought you were going to do it Wednesday," I said. She "didn't get around to it", was the answer. OK....I said I would come in and pick them up - today. She said she would fax them - today. I said, "No, that's alright. I prefer to pick them up." She said she did not understand why I was insisting on doing it "that way". So I told her....if I fax them myself, I will know, without a doubt, that they were sent, and received. She said, "I told you I would do it today." What do you say to someone like that? I don't believe you? I don't trust you? This is important and you have not made me feel like it will get done, if I leave it in your hands?

I tried to sound nice and non-accusatory. I said I had to go by my PCP's office and pick up my thyroid panel anyway (which was true), so I would just swing by and get the records from her office, as well. She said, "How about this....I will fax them to New York and then e-mail you the confirmation sheet?" I felt a little bit like a grouchy old biddy, but I stood my ground. I asked her to call me when they were ready to be picked up.

She called me about half an hour later and told me that she had to leave because her daughter was ill, but she would finish printing my records first and leave them at the reception desk. I have since picked them up and faxed them to SK myself.

Who thinks this would have gotten done if I had (A) not called the keeper-of-the-records person today, and (B) insisted on picking them up and faxing them myself?

The point of this post....do not rely on other people to take care of things for you. No one is as invested in your care/treatment as you are.

Carlene