Cheaters may not prosper but liars sometimes do . . .

What a day. Time to catch my breath . . .

My older son made some calls to SF2 and got the name and contact information for the top cardiac surgeon there – thanks Brandon! I faxed an explanatory cover letter along with the local cardiologist’s report regarding the ultrasound (it is SOOO embarrassing to have to explain away the multitude of errors contained within that report . . . it’s kind of like walking up to the plate for the first time in the major leagues with a plastic bat on my shoulder). We’ll see how long it takes to hear back from the SF2 team . . .

It proved a little more difficult to “hop the fence” at SF1. Brandon sent me a link to Stanford’s cardiac surgeons, and a friend of my older sister called a physician friend of his at SF1 and obtained the name of the guy I should see there (thanks Jan! thanks Phil!). But SF1 has two paths to making an appointment: one for patients and one for referring physicians. I initially tried the patient path . . . the phone number of course led to an answering machine. On which I left a message. And waited. Having grown weary over the past two weeks of waiting for the wheels of the medical machine to turn, I decided to take a more aggressive approach. I phoned the number reserved for referring physicians. That line is answered by a live person, of course:

Operator: Hello?
Paul: I’d like to refer a patient to Dr. (redacted) at (SF1).
Operator: Are you the referring physician?
Paul: I’m with his office.
Operator: Which office is that?
Paul: (facility name redacted)
Operator: (pause . . .)
Paul: . . . in New York.
Operator: Thank you – it’s hard for me to remember where they all are. Okay. His number is (redacted). I'll transfer you now . . .

And it was as simple as that. I was immediately connected with another real person. I indicated that I wanted to schedule an appointment for a patient. She asked if I was the referring doctor. I said I was the patient. After a pause, she asked if I could have my doctor send the clinical notes. I said that he didn’t have them but that I did. That was good enough. She provided a fax number to which I sent a cover letter and a photo of my plastic bat. She said that the doctor would review the material this afternoon. I asked when an appointment might be scheduled. She said the end of next week at the earliest, but that the doctor could accelerate that depending on the circumstances.

I’ve asked the local clinic to burn another copy of the echocardiogram to DVD. It will be ready for pickup tomorrow morning. This time I will make a few copies. I will then overnight one to SF1. I will also try to post a video on this blog so we can all see what all the fuss is about.

I also phoned the health insurance carrier today. It appears that both SF1 and SF2 are "in-network" providers under my new plan, thereby saving me a tremendous amount of money. I've asked for definitive confirmation, however.

Time for dinner. But I think I'm good for at least one more post this evening . . .