Previously on Ballpoint View:
A week ago, I took a trip to see my Primary Care Doctor, the reason? Well in the shower the previous morning, as I was soaping up, one of my two boys hit my hand like a golf ball.
Not everyone might be aware but that is not normal. I called my primary care doctor that morning after some panic induced WebMD-ing. Spoiler alert: WebMD was right this time. It was Cancer.
My primary care doc prescribed some antibiotics (as the other possibility was it could be an infection) and referred me for a precautionary ultrasound. When I agreed with the course of action, he thanked me for being willing to go in for the ultrasound. That seemed odd, but it certainly could be the case that some men are just unwilling to get it checked for fear of confirming what it is.
During the following week, I was ping-ponged back and forth between the Imaging Hospital -- who had yet to receive the faxed order -- and my primary care office who continually reiterated they had, in fact, faxed the order over.
Not pictured: Helpful Staff
Let's take a moment here to address what I'm sure will be a running theme through this ordeal: Even with the excellent people and technology in medicine now, many aspects of it are still woefully outdated and frustrating to deal with. 4 days were lost between the time of the referral for an ultrasound and the actual scheduling of it. No accountability was taken on either side of the equation to ensure it was scheduled and required me -- who at this point was terrified -- to proactively call back and forth between the parties. Turns out the problem was an outdated fax number.
Being forced to call back to the year 2002 to get my ultrasound scheduled was frustrating, even as my testicle continued to grow. No one helped. Everyone pointed fingers: "Check back in 4 hours, that's usually how long it takes to process the fax." "We just faxed it over again, give them an hour or so to receive it." and around and around.
So finally, Ultrasound order sent, I scheduled a date for my testicle prom photos on Thursday, August 24th. And that's what we'll go through next.
