Patience vs Patients

Our family has come to the conclusion that if you are a patient you must have patience. As the saying goes, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". As a parent of a child with cancer this was so often true.

When our clinic moved from one hospital facility to another we would often get to a department such as radiology only to be told we had to return to the previous department, naturally 4 floors and miles away, for some form we required or a specific piece of information. When we returned to the original point of departure we were told, "on no, they don't need that anymore". It was so frustrating at times I would just sit and cry. Of course, they "couldn't call the other department" (I think that would have been too easy!) sometimes I thought that was literally just done to frustrate us. Thus we became advocates for ourselves. Prior to the departure for another department I would have the front desk call the other front desk (no matter how hard she glared at me I waited for this call before I would leave). I reiterated before we left that they had previously required such and such paper and I would not be wasting my time going up and down the stairwells or elevators if it was required, they could fax it.

At first I was met with a hard cold stare. After a few times of this over the course of several weeks and tests, they simply did the proper work prior to our moving on to a new testing area and things were in order.

I was so frustrated that at one point a passing clergy stopped to ask if I was okay and if they could help. After he prayed he went to bat for us and things went a lot smoother.

My advice to any one is to ask questions til you do understand what is going on. Don't be afraid if you upset the receptionist...they should be doing their job and making your job of being supportive to your child much easier. Get the child life/social workers involved, get the clergy involved, what ever and whom ever it takes to accomplish what is needed. If you don't get anywhere with someone, call the front desk and get the supervisors name and go to them. Keep going til you get answers and results.

You are your childs best advocate!