The Doctors Office just got suckier!!!!!!

yes i know that suckier is not a word! but I finally got a call back from the nurse practitioner who could not remember why she called. While I had her on the phone I asked if she could check on the status of things. She pulled up my record and GUESS WHAT--no REALLY GUESS WHAT!!! SHE SAID TO ME-WE DO NOT HAVE YOUR PSYCH EVAL....ok I lost it on the phone. crying yelling..I am not really a yeller (I am a bit of a crier) but this is just the stupidest most incompetent thing they have done yet. I called for 3 months checking on the damned psych evaluation. At first is was at the bottom of the pile for a month, then it was all with the nurse practitioner waiting to be approved and sent on to insurance. Well apparently that was all a LIE. If I had a spare minute in my day I would call around to another doctor and see if I can transfer offices with my records in tact---and boy oh boy i want an evaluation form to turn in! The nurse practitioner, to giver her credit, did jump quickly after this. She asked me to emil her directly from now on, and give her the phychs name and number. She apparently her to fix the problem. She called me back tonight with news but i didnt get to the phone on time. Who knows how much longer of a set back I am going to get now!! if it isnt sorted i will damn well change doctors. At the rate they are going im going to need new blood work drawn because the results in my file sat there and expired!!! like a can of year old diet coke. I am still livid and hot about it just writing this...I wish you could take these things over the staff's head. and have a chat with the surgeons-They just weave a stiff we of incompetence! When I finally do get an entrance invitation to see a surgeon i will spend some time on the topic that is for sure.

Om the much calmer home school front. Things are going ok. shockingly (sarcastic tone intended) she is learning much more than she was while in school. We are doing much more talking and problem solving as it related to everyday things...why did you do that? how does it work kinds of stuff. in addition for two days a week we go to a home schoolers school-its a very cool arrangement. teachers volunteer to teach classes and are paid from the money raised by those classes. kids can then pick and choose the classes they want. This last term Grace has taken a math class, messy art, spanish, drama and a 3 hour long socialize with her peers time where they investigate things in a very informal way. next term we would like to get her into a creative writing class, geography and maybe a zooology class. We will talk it over tomorrow and decide whether she will be there 2 or 3 days aweek and if so what classes she will take. and or drop.

Im still juggling my work load with being home with her all day. DH stepped up today and tomorrow to give me two days of work time so I will be free of it before we leave next week. I had some curriculum to write for an online course that I finished today and then my application for a post doc in Sweden. I hope i get it. What a grand adventure to have! :) as part of the application I have to plan my research goals in an 8 page paper asap-well by tomorrow really. I have about 1/3 of it done I just need to wrap the idea up in my head and organize it and then figure out what exactly I want to study in the two years I would be in the hinterlands of Sweden.

Yeah-well The Doctors Office SUCKS

So as you might remember I called on Friday to speak to the nurse practitioner who had called me and left a message!! Well it is now Wednesday I left a message on Friday and was told she would call back on Monday...NO....I called twice yesterday leaving my phone number twice and again...NO return phone call. It is sooooo frustrating!!!!

What's not to like about Friday?

Im have a nice easy day at home looking at the list of things I'm supposed to be doing-Like cleaning, home fix-it to get the house ready to sell, several articles to write, a report to write, lessons to plan, etc. Instead I am doing my usual looking around for something else to do. DH is gone for the week to Boston at a conference and it is just us girls (two dd's and me) and i'm tired of being a single mom!

I found a message from the doctors office one my phone. I returned the call and found out that she is busy today but will try and get back to me on Monday. Please everyone who reads (probably only you Bunny) fingers crossed that this is the call i've been waiting for!

of course even if it is Im sure i will have to wait until after the end of March to go in as we will be in Spain for 11 days yay hooray. My daughter is excited that we will be coming (my 20 year old is there studying abroad). I've never been to Spain so can not wait to see it.

7 months since I was told the waiting time was 4 months

Well it has been 2.5 months since I finished my psych. evaluation and 1.5 months since is was submitted to the doctors office and told it was at the bottom of a pile on the records person's desk I finally have been told that it made it to the doctors office! The person in charge of records said that for some reason all of my city is seeking weight loss surgery this year and that despite what my psychologist said no one in her office has ever said that it was a good idea to wait until the first of the year to submit paperwork (hmm who do i believe???? I frankly don't trust either one). All of my records are now sitting in a pile waiting for the nurse practitioner to read them and see if I am allowed to move forward for insurance approval. Which will then take another month. So if I calculate that things will go at the same rate they have been I will finally get this surgery in April. Probably when I am at my busiest at work or in Alaska with my oldest daughter helping out with my new grandchild.

On a more positive note-the trip to Hawaii was grand and warm! we got to see hump backed wales cavort in the ocean, sit by the pool and get a sun tan! pedicure! shopping! yippeeeee.

Holding Pattern With Vacation on the Side

Still on a holding pattern. I called the doctors office four times over the last few weeks and every time I have been told that either my psych evaluation isn't in yet or the fax was broken, it is with the nurse practic., or it is in one of two big piles on the scheduler's desk. She has not gotten to it, she has been sick....so on and so on. I was dreaming when i thought i would get this band in 6 months (the surgeon said 4). I will be lucky if i get it before spring term starts.

So if i had only 4-6 months to eat every food that might be my last good meal I think i would have been ok but with so much longer looming I am going to need to watch it and dare i say it.....Diet!! i have gained weight. The other day when my newly washed jeans i found they were very uncomfortable i got on the scale for the first time in a long time. It was not pretty-I put on 18 pounds and was quickly approaching that big 300 number that i never ever want to see on a scale again! Needless to say i have been on the straight and arrow since then. It must have been quite a bit of water weight because Ive already taken off 10 of those pounds. I am going to try and continue to behave myself (except for the occasional bit of drinking fun while on my upcoming trips-more later). Hopefully i can get back down to 282 (what i weighed at my first visit to the doctors office).

Vacations: My husband is in snowy finland this week and I am leaving on Wednesday to Tulsa, OK for a work conference. My parents are coming to babysit my 6 and 18 year old. No your right the 18 year old doesnt need a babysitter-but the 6 year old does in a big way! I wish I were going to Finland-sounds much more interesting. The conference is good though-lots of good presentations evening "meetings in the bar". Hopefully i can even do a bit of networking for a job next year.

DH is back on Saturday and so am I. we get to throw our laundry in the machines and repack to go to HAWAII!!!! yay hoorayyyy
DH has been gone way too much over the last couple of months and we are all suffering from the winter blahs. My 18 year old daughter and I are planning on staying pool side and on the beach as much as possible. I will try and catch up on some work but really focus on R and R if I can!

the bathroom remodel: we finally grouted and put the fixtures back up in the bathroom. I am waiting for a mirror and towel shelf over the toilet. I promise i will upload pics when it is done.

arrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh and not of the pirate variety

So I finally get a message from the psychologist who was supposed to write my evaluation for weight loss surgery. It has been about a month since I went to the second of two visits to her office. She acted like she was going to get on the evaluative report right away but I was WRONG with capital letters. Apparently since the hospital is not scheduling any more surgeries until February (according to her message) she finds it unnecessary to write my report until the new year. Now call me CRAZY but the way i look at it. If they under high demand and cannot fit anyone in until February that means that my psych report should get in there as early as possible so that I can get into the queue as quickly as possible. I want to be ready the first part of Feb not F***ing March!!!!

On a good note we got really cheap tickets to visit Madrid for spring break. One of my older daughters will be studying there for a semester. I think it will be fun! I was hoping to go a bit slimmer but at this rate Ill be on liquids if im lucky-and likely have to go to Spain for one last fling before I get to have the surgery. arghghghghghghghghg

Tina

I have a bruise on my butt the width of the edge of the bathtub

Its Sunday-there is one more wall to tile; all the walls to grout and the floor needs grouting too. The toilet is still in the bathtub, the bathroom cabinets are in my entryway and the sink and counter top are in my office. To top it all off I have people coming over on Tuesday for a Christmas get together. Hmm am I going to finish the bathroom in time? Cross your fingers--if I manage it I will take a picture and post it. I got the bruise from sitting on the edge of the the bathtub reaching in to apply the tile adhesive and put the tiles onto the wall. Ouch...it hurts!