It was a really long week for me, and a stressful one at that. It ended in complete frustration, anger, and sheer disappointment.
I had an appointment with a specialist during the first week of December. Shortly after my appointment, I wrote an entire blog about how hopeful I felt that I had finally found someone who was willing to go that extra mile to help me, albeit temporarily, with all my neurological issues I’ve been enduring for close to 2 years now since taking part in the clinical research trial for Psilocybin. (See blog: https://wheredidmommyssmilego.com/2023/12/06/hanging-onto-hope/)
As Rich and I left the appointment, hanging onto hope, the doctor gave me a pamphlet with information to read over and told me that her office would follow up with me in a day or two to schedule my next appointment with her for sometime in January, but before the appointment were to take place, Rich first needed to submit a form to her from our insurance company, which she would need to fill out and sign in order for him to find out if the treatment she was hoping to do would be covered by his benefits, as it is way too expensive on its own.
As per her request, Rich sent the documents needed to the doctor via the email address we were provided at my appointment, later that same evening.
A week went by, and then another week as well. No word from the hospital as to scheduling a follow-up appointment in January, and no word from the doctor either with the signed forms we needed to submit to insurance.
Rich then followed up with another email and resent the documents to the doctor once again. I still hadn’t heard from them either, but I figured there was no point in calling to make another appointment until we knew whether or not his work benefits would cover this treatment.
Last week, and more than a month since my first appointment, I received a letter in the mail from the clinic with my scheduled appointment for the end of January. They never called to book the appointment like the doctor had said they would. Instead, they just sent a letter in the mail with a scheduled date and time. I guess that’s some progress though, however, we still had not heard back from the doctor yet and so on Tuesday of this past week, Rich resent the documents a third time, hoping, maybe this time we would finally hear back. Guess that was wishful thinking.
So on Thursday I called the office, sat on my phone while at work, for an hour, listening to soothing music and a voice message come on every few minutes to tell me that my call is in priority sequence. I eventually hung up, feeling defeated, and all hope lost. But I decided to give it one last try yesterday by going through a different connection in the hospital’s portal, and I got hold of someone at reception. I explained what was going on and that my husband had sent THREE separate emails to them over the past month plus and that nobody had answered any of them and that with my upcoming appointment it was urgent that we submit the signed forms to our insurance company right away as we have no clue how long it will take to get an answer from them next. The kind woman on the other end of the phone was able to scroll through their emails and found the email Rich had sent a few days earlier, and the 2 previous ones sent in December as well. She promised she would print it off right away and that the doctor was in so she would personally hand it to her.
Hope was in the air again. A couple of hours later, the doctor herself called me as she filled out the form and told me that she would be sending it to us right away
I texted Rich to ask him to keep an eye out for her email. When I got home from work a few hours later, on a Friday evening, the first thing I said to him when I walked through the door was, “Did you get the forms back from the doctor?” He replied, “Nope.”.
And just like that, all hope was lost again.
Vent over. Thanks for always listening.
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