More!!!

Today, as I was leaving to meet DH for lunch, I grabbed my cell phone to call him and saw that I had a voice mail. It was from my mom's surgeon's office. Basically, the surgeon decided that my mom needed to see a cardiologist BEFORE she has surgery on Monday. So I called the physician's assistant back on her cell phone, and asked her what the issue was. None she says, it's just that my mom is so medically fragile, etc, and he wanted to be sure she was stable enough to withstand surgery. I asked if her EKG was okay, and the PA said yes, it was fine. So . . . I didn't really understand, but okay. So she asked if my mom had a cardiologist. NO, I said, and we don't know any. So it ended with the both of us saying we would try to find someone TODAY to see my mom. If not, then her surgery would be postponed until Tuesday or Wednesday. NOT ACCEPTABLE TO ME!!!!!! More below--

Now keep in mind, I am in the car, on the way to lunch. And it's 1:00 on the day before Thanksgiving!
I called my sister and my best friend and they started looking for cardiologists online. We kept hitting brick walls. No one was in, or they weren't taking appointments, or they were booked and couldn't see my mom until at least Monday. :bhead:
So, when I got to the restaurant, I asked to see a phone book, found some more doctors, gave my sister two #'s and called a couple myself. I had no luck. Then my phone rings and it's a cardiologist. He was SO NICE. Told me he would see my mom TODAY! TODAY! And his office was only about ten minutes from where I was! So, I left the restaurant, called my mom, and went to get her. I was only about five minutes from her house. We had to wait about an hour at the dr's office, but considering he was working us in the day before a holiday, I was pleased.
He was just FABULOUS. Straight forward, down to earth, and totally to the point. Didn't pull any punches, and I like that. He was also a HUGE advocate for us. MORE below--

The nurse did the EKG for mom. The doctor came in, and he said that he didn't know what Dr. S was doing this for, but he figured he was either trying to purposely put off the surgery for his own convenience or he was trying to "cover his @ss." and that is a quote! He said that he felt that my mom probably does have some heart disease given her age and the fact that she smokes. BUT that she had a normal result on the EKG and had no other red flag symptoms, so he felt it was more important for her to go ahead with the surgery than to worry about the possibility of heart disease. He gave me something to that effect in writing, and then he said, "The surgery you are going to have is not an easy surgery. It's as serious a surgery as you can have. It's going to be a long and painful recovery. And you need to know, things could go badly. If you were your daughter's age and didn't smoke, the chances of things going bad would be 1% to 2%, but since you are older and you smoke, your chances are 10% to 20%. Just know that." Then he told her that after her surgery and her recovery, he did want her to come back to see him and have a stress test and a nuclear test. He said that it sounded like there was some blockages in her neck arteries. I assured him I would bring her back. He left the room to call mom's surgeon and Mom got dressed and we were leaving and he stopped us.
Basically, the surgeon wanted the cardiologist to do the nuclear and stress tests. Dr. B (cardiologist) told the PA that even if he did those two tests, his opinion would be unchanged. He felt strongly that mom needs to have this lung surgery asap. So they hung up. Mom was in the bathroom, and I told him that even before he told us all that, that I was well aware of the risks, but that all I know is that every day she goes without surgery or treatment is another day the tumor has to grow and invade her body. That I wanted him to reassure Dr. S (surgeon) that we would not blame him if things did not go well, that we knew it could happen and that we trust Dr. B's opinion regarding Mom's heart. So, then Dr. B said, "Great! I tell you what, if they keep d!cking you around, I'll help you find another cardiothoracic surgeon who can take care of your mom's surgery and who will be just as good." Another quote! So, the PA called back, and Dr. B told her that they were being rude putting us through this today, basically THE DAY BEFORE mom's surgery, and that we were not happy with them about it (very true!) and that if they would not accept his recommendation, that we were willing and ready to just find another surgeon. That took care of it, and the surgery is on for Monday. Thank God! Literally--I know He is the one who led us to Dr. B because He knew Dr. B would take care of business.

I left out the quote where he said something about it being BULLSH*T! That's so funny that you said that because he did, too!