Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Playing Hardball

As Dr. Kuan said yesterday, "If they (ABMG) want to play hardball, we'll play hardball."

True to her word, Dr. Champion tried valiantly to contact Dr. Wong on Monday (and yesterday) to schedule a biopsy. He moves from imaging facility to imaging facility and so he was difficult to track down but she finally got his cell phone number (they're not supposed to do that, but she can be very charming and persistent) and got him to approve a biopsy for next Tuesday morning.

Of course, she left me this message while I was meeting with Dr. Kuan yesterday, and I didn't retrieve the message until Dr. Kuan left the examination room to try to track down Dr. Wong to get him to approve a biopsy. :-) It's all very symmetrical, isn't it?

Dr. Kuan said that Alta Bates Medical Group takes an egregiously long time to approve *anything* and that Hill Physicians is much better. Unfortunately, my primary care physician is not with Hill Physicians, so, unless I have another tumor, I'll stay with the awful ABMG.

So anyway, I have an appointment next Tuesday morning, and then I'll see Dr. Champion that Friday, and Dr. Kuan again the following Tuesday. And we'll know where we stand.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kuan says the mass (or hard area, or thick skin, or whatever you want to call it) has not grown in the four weeks since she felt it. She still suspects it's scar tissue, but given the distance from the surgery site, it's better to know what it is. (And if the MRI was inconclusive, we'd have to do a biopsy anyway, so....)

It feels good to have a plan of action again, rather than just waiting (and waiting and waiting).

Oh! and our office is almost done. I took pics last night of the job halfway done. They're at our house right now, finishing up. And then we shall start emptying our garage of the multitude of boxes. I'll post pics this weekend, when everything is in its place.

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