Gotta Have Connections To See The Neurologist

So that night after getting the news about Jack's MRI results I lost it. I mean lost it. Susie and I were sitting on the couch discussing what we'd just heard from the pediatrician. Now we knew for sure...this wasn't going away yet. We still did not know however if we were dealing with brain tumor, just a cyst, and what the prognosis was. Everything we read though pointed to the fact that this was likely a benign cyst within the skull. Further, it pointed to the likelihood that Jack was at some point going to go through surgery to have it removed and would possibly be living with a shunt (a surgically implanted contraption to drain fluid from the head to the abdomen). Still, this was not by any means set in stone. Most of the other likely outcomes were much, much worse. To this point, I had not cried except for when they took Jack to do the MRI and even then it was just a few tears. Suddenly, I was out of control. Susie just hugged me and she cried along too. I finally got ahold of myself after about 1/2 an hour. We both decided to start calling our immediate family to notify them of the results and the plan.

When I called my parents, I was reeling from our pediatricians suggesting that this was nothing to be urgent about and that if the neurologist was going to take a week or two to get us in, that was okay in his opinion. I wanted to get moving. Western medicine is notorious for waiting and being reacitive and I didn't want to be subjected to this any longer. My parents happened to know a doctor from the neonatal unit at the hospital where the MRI occured. She also happened to know that neurologist our pediatrician referred us to. My father called her right after I gave him the news. Eventually, I ended up on the phone with her and she offered to help us get in to see the neuro (Dr. Trumble). At around 8pm, on a Friday night, I got a call back from this amazingly helpful woman who apparently was waiting in her car at a local high school for her kids to return from some school function. She proceeded to tell me that she had already spoken to Dr. Trumble who pulled up the MRI results over the computer and told her that the cyst did not appear cancerous and that even if surger was necessary, he felt it would be relatively uncomplicated. Further, he agreed to see us Monday morning. I told Susie. We were elated. We could eat dinner after all. We smiled and laughed about everything and nothing until going to bed that night.

The next morning we woke up to pick up the order from our pediatrician to see Dr. Trumble as it was necessary for insurance purposes. I felt as if I finally one upped the man who seemed to take everything in too much stride. I went in his office ready to announce to him, "we know someone who knows Dr. Trumble and we're already in; please just give us the order". I walked in and the office was in chaos. They had just opened and were clearly overbooked. The office was filled with children and their parents. Only two staff members were on which was clearly not enough as they usually have at least 3 or 4. Dr. Kalter sat reading some files visible through the lobby/check-in window. He said he had spoken with Dr. Trumble and indicated, to his surprise, Dr. Trumble was already aware of Jack and had even already seen his MRI pix. I told him how this came to be, as if to say, we don't need you any longer. He then said, not knowing what else to say and seeming a little like a child who just got smacked for saying no to his parents one too many times, "we're going to move ahead with this". I said, "excuse me", more due to not knowing what that meant. He repeated, "we're going to move on and take care of this". Still not knowing what he meant, I realized he probably didn't know what he meant either. We stopped talking and he called a patient back.

Still standing at the reception window, I waited for a staff member to ask me what I was there for. Finally, a woman said, "what do you need". I told her that Kalter indicated I needed to pick up a prescription to see the neurologist, Dr. Trumble. She looked confused. Then, the same woman who I had argued with previously in order to facilitate getting our MRI scheduled, indicated that the individual in charge of that was not available. Further, she added, I don't know when she will be in because she is already late. I lost it, again. I told her Kalter had told us to come in the morning adding that someone would help us get the appointment scheduled and take care of this. She then tried to explain why Kalter should not have promised us that adding that, even once the woman who was late came in, she would not be able to get to this until sometime that afternoon. I told her I would be expecting a call by 11am or I was going to be calling back every 15 minutes until it was done.

At 10:45am, while sitting at the library with Susie and Jack reading free books, we got the call. Everything was ready. We were set to finally see the one person that could tell us what the hell was going on and what our life was going to be like, at least in the near future.