December 3, 2024 [Day 4]
Last Saturday, The Droning Voice went into the ER at Ascension St. John Jane Phillips Medical Center to get relief from acute and severe abdominal cramping / pain, including … when you put stuff in one end and it doesn’t come out the other end. This was alarming. We thought she must have a blockage and it could kill her. This had been getting steadily worse for about 6 weeks. Her next-to-useless Primary Care arrangement through Primary Care Associates, which threw her to the curb by disenfranchising her to Utica Park Clinic upon adopting the MDVIP Concierge Care business model, would not see her besides scheduling an appointment which has yet to happen. When The Droning Voice called for an appointment much earlier in November, before her guts came to a crisis, they gave her an appointment that still has yet to come, on December 6 [Day 7]. Utica Park Clinic is a disorganized Hot Mess.
At some point we had to say “enough is enough,” and we took the day Saturday to go to Urgent Care. Urgent Care immediately advised we go to the Emergency Room at Ascension St. John Jane Phillips Medical Center.
The ER people were pretty good. They did a CT scan, but were concerned to report finding what appeared to be a fist-sized mass in her abdomen, on her pancreas. The report found the mass was “highly concerning for primary pancreatic malignancy.” As you know, pancreatic cancer is really, really bad. The ER told us pancreatic cancer is confirmed or ruled out by doing an abdominal MRI then a biopsy of the tissue of concern. They ordered an MRI to be scheduled by Ascension scheduling, but they did not order the bioposy. Rather, they referred The Droning Voice to Oklahoma Cancer Specialists and Research Institute (OCSRI) and told us the oncologist would have to order the biopsy.
This had a predictable effect on The Droning Voice and me. We were able to break it to our daughter fairly well, but she did call me late that night having an anxiety attack which was pretty tough.
In their infinite wisdom, left to their own devices, Ascension scheduled the MRI for 24 days after the initial “highly concerning for primary pancreatic malignancy” finding. They scheduled the MRI for December 23 [Day 24]. When I called Oklahoma Cancer Specialists and Research Institute (OCSRI), they said their first opening was in February, but before they scheduled a consultation with the oncologist, they first wanted to take a look at the MRI when it was completed. Of course this meant they would not order the biopsy until after they had scheduled an office consultation which would only be scheduled after they had seen the completed MRI.
The Droning Voice and I could think only one thing. She said, “I could be dead by then.”
Umm. This was completely unacceptable for so many reasons. I put on my special Patient Advocacy Badge (Mr. Somner spent many years as a professional patient advocate before getting put out to pasture), I grabbed my biggest hammer, and called them out successfully. Short version is, we went back to the ER today. They did the MRI today [Day 4, not Day 24 as originally scheduled] which they didn’t do Saturday (they told me they don’t do MRIs on weekends). When OCSRI learned this, they gave her an appointment for this coming Monday December 6 [Day 7]. Before seeing the MRI. Mission accomplished. No blood was shed. Sheesh.
After today’s MRI, the ER doctor reported to The Droning Voice that he was “cautiously optimistic” and that “the MRI does not really look like pancreatic cancer usually looks.” If you ask Google, the chances of pancreatic masses getting discovered coincidentally on CT scans being cancerous is 31%. That’s another way of saying 2 out of 3 of these cases turn out to be benign. So this is cautiously good news. I am guessing the oncologist will order the biopsy and we will learn the answer with certainty, hopefully by the end of next week.
As you can imagine we are a mess here, although now “cautiously optimistic.” We want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We will keep you informed.
Now we have to get to rehearsal! Because we are musicians. And it is Christmas.