Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Nutritional Class

November 22, 2005

Although it is ok to go to any nutritionalist that deals with Bariatric patients Dr. Naaman’s Office requested that we attend the one offered at Memorial hospital. This is the last step for my consult with the Dr. so I called them up and asked that we do it on the same day since the drive is pretty far from home. They are so considerate. They gave me the number to make my appointment and say call back afterwards to make the consultation appointment on the same day.

The nutritional consultation turns out to be in a class format. They do it like that because at this point we are all on the same page. (We all being Dr. Naaman’s patients.) Once we have surgery we will be going back to the Nutritionalist for an individualized plan. This one goes over the differences of diet requirements and shows example menus for after surgery and so on. My Nutritional appointment was at 9:15am and the consultation was at 1pm. I had to fast with not even a drink of water for the DR. appointment I didn’t like that but it was a great test of my character. I could not even have water! That sucked!!!

My check in process was quite frustrating. The Hospital schedules the appointment so I didn’t talk to the nutritional office when I set up the appointment. I received an email that gave me the instruction to be there at 9:15 am or I would have to reschedule. Those of you in Houston or who know me understand that I cannot judge time to save my life. It seems to be one of the things that slip through my fingers and I cannot control it or predict it. So 9:15 to most people seems pretty reasonable. And it is. However, in character with my not being able to judge time I thought that being the week of thanksgiving traffic would not be very bad and I could make it in one hour without paying on the Beltway… Ha Ha Ha… not the case at all I was unfortunate to find out…. It seems most people are still working that week. To my chagrin! Anyway, it took almost an hour to get from less than 3 miles through down town Houston and then the never ending construction on I10 was horrendous. What the Heck was I thinking? How could I have been so dumb? Whatever! The damage was done and I was stuck. I began to steadily get more and more disgruntled and started my typical stress road rage by yelling in the car at the stupid drivers on the freeway as if they could really hear me. You know the ones who can’t drive! Or the ones who are mean and wont let you over in the next lane because God forbid one single little car going the same speed as everyone else will make them at the very least 10 minutes late. Or this is the only thing they can control so by God they will control not letting anyone in the lane in front of them! Whatever!

Arriving at the hospital and being in a parking space (which was free to my surprise) by 9:20. We jumped out of the car and walked/ran as fast as we could to get into the check in area. When I made my appointment they told me to go to the EAST wing and check in…. So I parked at the Gessner entrance and went to check in. EAST wing my butt. I had to book it to the WEST wing of a hospital that spanned at least two blocks it was almost 9:30 by the time we got to the right place. My son was amazed he said he had never seen me run like that before and my calves and knees were burning like I had just dipped them in fire. I arrived at the information desk and told them why I as here and everyone was looking at the crazy fat lady who couldn’t breath trying to talk it was quite amusing when I started to think about it. Then she told me it didn’t start until 10am. 10AM!!!!! I almost had a heart attack trying to get there on time and it didn’t start until 10AM!!!! Man that sucked and it was great all at the same time! I was not going to have to reschedule.

First let me say that I have had a bad morning until now and this next part didn’t help. However the wonderful woman who checked me in took my attitude and frustration in stride and never let it get to her. She was AWESOME!! She really did make the process much better for me and the day began to turn around. By the end I was apologizing for myself man I felt bad. I was also misinformed that there would be no fee involved and my insurance was going to pay for this class. Oh how wrong they were! I had to pay 105.24 or something crazy like that. Now its 3 days to payday and I know for a fact there is not enough money to cover that and my debit/credit card will be denied with a big fat NO so I said wait a second here they told me it would not cost anything. I don’t want to pay. She said politely that the insurance usually does not pay for this part because you have to be responsible for some part so they know you really want it. So I pulled out my checkbook and said who do I make it out to? Well she said it would be electronically put in and then I cried… how was I going to pay (because I couldn’t go if I didn’t) I told her my dilemma and asked if she could let me go to the class because my mother would be there afterward and she would pay for it. She couldn’t do that so I was going to call my mother and get her credit card number but I though we would try the check first to see if it would work. PRAISE GOD it went through!!!! I couldn’t believe it and the lady behind the desk smiled and said well I guess that means you are meant to be here. Halleluiah!!! Its true first with the late thing and then with the money thing I know God was with me and supporting me through this.

So with a sigh of relieve and a really big apology I returned to my seat and awaited the class. The class only had about 5 people in it so it was nice to be able to participate and I was dieing for some water!!!!
Posted by The Catapillar :: 12:43 PM :: 0 Comments:

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