When Will I Learn that Life Never Happens With Just ONE Phone Call?

Today I literally only had two things that I had to accomplish:

(1) Make a medical appointment, and

(2) Pay the annual premium for my life insurance policy.

In my mind, both tasks should have required minimal effort. The first task, one phone call. The second, log on online. It’s almost the end of the day, and I am 1 of 2 and near my stress saturation point. Truly, I need to adjust my expectations. I should plan for multiple calls and follow-up calls, and then be pleasantly surprised if it only does take one phone call. But alas, this is not how I operate.

Really, how hard is it to make an appointment?! (Warning: Spoiled Wifey venting) The short version is my primary health care manager decided at the last pre-natal visit that I should have a follow-up ultrasound this month. I’m measuring 4 weeks bigger than I should be. Now granted, I was sleep-deprived and on the verge of sickness at the last visit, but I do remember repeating twice her instructions. She said that they, whoever “they” may be (Yes, I probably should have clarified but I must have been assuming the ultrasound/radiology clinic), would contact me the following week after Christmas. As we all know, when “they” (Yes, yes, of course, my people will contact your people.) are suppose to contact you, that’s usually a flag that you will be making phone calls yourself to follow-up. So after the holidays and (surprise!) not hearing from the clinic, I started the phone calls to make my ultrasound appointment.

Day 1: After repeated answering machines, I finally get a live person who then kindly informs me that it is a hospital training day. He is a contractor; hence, why he is working but as far as he knows, it is a training day and all clinics are minimally manned (i.e. no one is answering the phones). Give up Day 1.

Day 2: I leave a message with my health care provider to confirm her instructions from 2 weeks ago concerning this ultrasound. Was this through the Prenatal Assessment clinic or Radiology? Called Prenatal Assessment clinic and left a message. A nurse from the prenatal assessment clinic returns my call within an hour (small victory!) with a message that they do not have any ultrasound appointments available and to call the referral management system to see another provider. (uh oh). Give up Day 2.

Day 3: I call Radiology. Radiology also instructs me to call the referral management system. I call the Referral Management System. They do not have a referral for me in the system. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. I ask politely with whom should I call next. I am referred back to my primary health care provider. Meanwhile, I am still waiting to hear from my health care provider from my phone call yesterday.

Day 4: So tomorrow I make my last phone call back to my primary health care provider concerning the ultrasound referral. Although I am sure that this will not get resolved or an appointment made before my next prenatal visit in 2 weeks. *sigh*

As you might surmise, I’m not a rebel rouser. I’m not on the phone all afternoon raising hell until I get the right answer. I try to work within the system and within my tolerance for making phone calls. But really, am I being unreasonable for originally thinking that I could have picked up the phone and made the appointment with just one phone call (especially considering my health care provider said they’d contact me.)?

I won’t even go into great detail concerning the life insurance fiasco. Let’s just say it involved password recovery which required a phone call. Naively I thought I would go online and finish the deal, only to find that the online payment system was not working. So I was back on the phone to make a payment, which when you manually have to enter the numbers over the phone, it takes a nice chunk of your time when you are wishing you could be doing something else. Oh goodness, 30 minutes of my life gone….coupled with the multiple phone calls to the hospital another 30 minutes…and let’s not forget mothering at the same time (I deferred to the Wii this afternoon.).

Yes, I understand this is part of life’s aggravations. I guess I always expect “it” to be easy, one phone call, and straight to the point. And “it” isn’t. And that’s where I get frustrated. Stressed. Aggravated. Need to lower my expectations, maybe? Expect it to be more work. More challenges. More time. I’ll add that to my new year’s resolutions. (But I’m not completely spoiled and ungrateful. I am very thankful for health care & life insurance!)