Dear Chief of GI Unit and Hospital President of unnamed hospital
It is bad enough that I turned half a decade old but to make those of us have a colonoscopy just makes this age a tad bit worse.
I prepped.
For 36 hours I ate no solids.
I drank water up the wazoo and ate lime jello and bouillon broth.
I drank 3 bottles of lemon magnesium citrate while almost praying to the porcelain god while doing so.
I reminded myself I am not the first person to spend hours on end "prepping" so I sucked it up and made my way to unnamed hospital for my 1:00 PM arrival time with DH by my side as my designated driver.
As I was checked in I was told that there was a water main break and they were not sure how delayed I would be.
Only me.
Well, only me and about 15 others.
We waited.
Everyone was getting quite nudgy as we all glanced around at each other making "this really sucks" faces.
At 2PM a woman in scrubs arrived and we all pounced on her asking what was the update.
She knew nothing.
She told us that the higher ups were all meeting and we would know something by 2:15.
Hello 2:30. No update from nice woman in scrubs. However, the head of GI would be arriving at 2:45 to give an update. She was pretty confident that they would be accomodating all of us , somehow, since we all had to do the dreaded prep.
The minutes ticked by.
New suckers, I mean, patients, arrived, thinking they were going to have their procedure done today.
Because, after all, we were told by the front desk they were doing all they could to fit us in.
You know, dreaded prep and all.
Hello 45 minutes after we were told someone would update us.
Apologies. Apologies.
(Side note. We all understood the water main break was not their fault. The lack of communication however; was. )
We were able to fit a select few (read: those of more serious nature) to another site to have your colonoscopies today.
Apology Apology
The rest of you, apology, will have to reschedule. Apology.
After I confirmed that my DR would definitely not be at the other site (assured she would not be), I left.
After, apology apology "make sure you get your free parking pass".
Upon exiting the garage of unnamed hospital, I immediately called my GI doc to reschedule.
Naturally I got a voice mail.
It had now been 42 hours since anything of substance had been consumed so I inhaled ...what else would be served after a procedure? The all so tempting, graham crackers.
Two to be exact.
I was hangry as hell and was sporting a massive TMJ headache.
As I entered my house the phone rang.
It was the lovely admin of GI doc from unnamed hospital who was just finding out of the dreaded water main break. She was trying to reschedule people.
" Are you already home? I have one slot available still for this afternoon" (Are you following along here? You know I was ASSURED that my doc was NOT going to be at the other site doing colonoscopies)
WHAT? YES! I will take it. But I had 2 graham crackers (and 5 mini saltines that I may have forgotten to mention)
Puts me on hold.
Call to DR.
Call to anesthesiologist.
Back to me.
Yea, apology apology. That would be a big fat no.
Grahams and sedation don't mix.
She could fit me in at 8AM if I continue with clear liquids for another 16 hours.
Moving my Mom so that wont work.
I was almost in tears.
I realize this is not huge in the big scheme of things.
I realize this is a routine colonoscopy and most likely, I am fine.
I realize that drinking bouillon soup is not a third world problem.
But you know...
HANGRY!
Lovely admin sympathized and I hung up rescheduling for mid October.
Immediately I emailed customer care at unnamed hospital.
And I have to say...
an hour later the chief of quality control (or some big title like that) called me.
Apology apology.
Admitted they really screwed up.
No communication.
I hit the nail on the head.
It wasn't the water main.
I get that nature happens.
It was us sitting there for over two hours which was all too much for our tired hungry stressed bodies to handle.
So thank you unnamed hospital for admitting you messed up.
Thank you for telling me you will meet and review how you messed up and try to make it up to the 15 hangry people.
(which Im doubting will happen but the thought is what counts)
And for now
my stomach still sucks and I'm dreading the damned magnesium citrate bottles in 3 weeks.
This whole day has been a big load of crap.
(**Pun intended**)
It is bad enough that I turned half a decade old but to make those of us have a colonoscopy just makes this age a tad bit worse.
I prepped.
For 36 hours I ate no solids.
I drank water up the wazoo and ate lime jello and bouillon broth.
I drank 3 bottles of lemon magnesium citrate while almost praying to the porcelain god while doing so.
I reminded myself I am not the first person to spend hours on end "prepping" so I sucked it up and made my way to unnamed hospital for my 1:00 PM arrival time with DH by my side as my designated driver.
As I was checked in I was told that there was a water main break and they were not sure how delayed I would be.
Only me.
Well, only me and about 15 others.
We waited.
Everyone was getting quite nudgy as we all glanced around at each other making "this really sucks" faces.
At 2PM a woman in scrubs arrived and we all pounced on her asking what was the update.
She knew nothing.
She told us that the higher ups were all meeting and we would know something by 2:15.
Hello 2:30. No update from nice woman in scrubs. However, the head of GI would be arriving at 2:45 to give an update. She was pretty confident that they would be accomodating all of us , somehow, since we all had to do the dreaded prep.
The minutes ticked by.
New suckers, I mean, patients, arrived, thinking they were going to have their procedure done today.
Because, after all, we were told by the front desk they were doing all they could to fit us in.
You know, dreaded prep and all.
Hello 45 minutes after we were told someone would update us.
Apologies. Apologies.
(Side note. We all understood the water main break was not their fault. The lack of communication however; was. )
We were able to fit a select few (read: those of more serious nature) to another site to have your colonoscopies today.
Apology Apology
The rest of you, apology, will have to reschedule. Apology.
After I confirmed that my DR would definitely not be at the other site (assured she would not be), I left.
After, apology apology "make sure you get your free parking pass".
Upon exiting the garage of unnamed hospital, I immediately called my GI doc to reschedule.
Naturally I got a voice mail.
It had now been 42 hours since anything of substance had been consumed so I inhaled ...what else would be served after a procedure? The all so tempting, graham crackers.
Two to be exact.
I was hangry as hell and was sporting a massive TMJ headache.
As I entered my house the phone rang.
It was the lovely admin of GI doc from unnamed hospital who was just finding out of the dreaded water main break. She was trying to reschedule people.
" Are you already home? I have one slot available still for this afternoon" (Are you following along here? You know I was ASSURED that my doc was NOT going to be at the other site doing colonoscopies)
WHAT? YES! I will take it. But I had 2 graham crackers (and 5 mini saltines that I may have forgotten to mention)
Puts me on hold.
Call to DR.
Call to anesthesiologist.
Back to me.
Yea, apology apology. That would be a big fat no.
Grahams and sedation don't mix.
She could fit me in at 8AM if I continue with clear liquids for another 16 hours.
Moving my Mom so that wont work.
I was almost in tears.
I realize this is not huge in the big scheme of things.
I realize this is a routine colonoscopy and most likely, I am fine.
I realize that drinking bouillon soup is not a third world problem.
But you know...
HANGRY!
Lovely admin sympathized and I hung up rescheduling for mid October.
Immediately I emailed customer care at unnamed hospital.
And I have to say...
an hour later the chief of quality control (or some big title like that) called me.
Apology apology.
Admitted they really screwed up.
No communication.
I hit the nail on the head.
It wasn't the water main.
I get that nature happens.
It was us sitting there for over two hours which was all too much for our tired hungry stressed bodies to handle.
So thank you unnamed hospital for admitting you messed up.
Thank you for telling me you will meet and review how you messed up and try to make it up to the 15 hangry people.
(which Im doubting will happen but the thought is what counts)
And for now
my stomach still sucks and I'm dreading the damned magnesium citrate bottles in 3 weeks.
This whole day has been a big load of crap.
(**Pun intended**)
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