Well That Was An Eye Opener…continued… again

 

As I sat in the waiting area for Trabajo Social, back again in the San Miguel General Hospital, I was feeling a little daunted by my experience with la Dra. Hernandez Narango in Leon and what lay before me. I felt very grateful however, to have Tania to help me through it all. As she set up appointments for the long list of tests required by la doctora, she explained that Seguro Popular may not cover everything.

First I had to visit a new lineup, at the administration desk in Emergency, to find out if the CAT scan and EKG would be covered. I guess Tania could tell that I was a little unnerved by the idea that I might not be able to have these tests (OMG what would La Doctora say!), and she told me not to worry and to just come back to see her if this was the case, and she would deal with it if necessary. Thankfully there was no problem as the nice lady at the emergency room desk told me that everything would be covered.

The next three weeks were spent in the hospital, Monday to Friday for anywhere from three to five hours a day, undergoing tests and then returning to retrieve the results. Tania had made another appointment for me in Leon when all the information required by La Doctora, had been amassed. After all she didn’t want me “dying on the operating table”!

Back in La Doctora’s office in Leon the test results were examined and La Doctora deemed me healthy enough to undergo surgery. However that would not happen for another two months. Since I had already had the symptoms of my condition for eight months at this point I was devastated by the long wait. But then Dra. Hernandez Naranjo explained that there are only so many beds available for recipients of Seguro Popular and that it can sometimes take six months to a year to get surgery. Suddenly two months was looking pretty good to me.

She also explained that there is always the possibility that someone might have a life-threatening situation at the time that my surgery is due, in which case I would be sent home and we would have to reschedule. Fair enough, I could understand that. And so we now had a date to return to the hospital in Leon in two months. The doctor told us that I would be located on either the second or third floor, depending on where a bed was available, and that they would tell me where to go when the day arrived. The third floor is surgery, traumatology and internal medicine and the second floor is the maternity ward.

There will be one last installment in what is becoming a tome, but I will make it brief, I promise.