Chapter 3: Patient Be Alert.

Chapter 3: Patient Be Alert.
On Friday morning I woke, anticipation played havoc with the butterflies in my gut. Around 9 I called The Hartford. I opened my claim and took down my claim number and such. I was also told that I would be receiving 2 checks. One from them and one from the company on short term disability. This would amount to 66% of my bi-weekly pay. I opted to have them send my payment directly to my checking account. They also told me I would need to call after the test.
I began thinking about the procedure. It wasn't making sense. Being on coumadin, a blood thinner, you never just go into the hospital for a procedure. It is normal that you are admitted a day before and put on a liquid called heparin. I received a call from a nurse at the hospital who was giving me information. When we got to medications she confirmed my suspicions. This would have to be rescheduled or I would need to call my Dr. office. We canceled the pretest that day. I called the office and spoke to the secretary.
"YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU WERE ON COUMADIN!"
True, I had told the nurse and the Dr., I was unaware that either; the secretary needed to know, or would not know. Even considering it was even on the chart.
I was polite, and she calmed a bit and half apologized. Never a good idea to piss these people off. She said she would call me back, most likely I would need to be admitted to the hospital on Sunday. That sounded normal. Informed my family and made what preparations had to be made. I was expecting to be in the hospital for several days. Normally I run a temperature after even a local anesthesia. Also it takes time to stabilize blood while on heparin.
I arrived at the hospital on Sunday. A side note, originally I was to arrive at the hospital at 5:30 on Monday Morn for the pretest. This place being a good 45 minutes from my house. Sent everything home, can't have anything. Charged my Television and Phone to my cable bill, must haves in the hospital. Either that or come up with the $11 a day for the luxury of both. Or put on credit card. As I had time to prepare for even the reduction of pay, I had been very careful to put nothing on the credit card at all. They took me for xray's and started the heparin and such. Apparently I would be going in very early for the test. This was a stroke of luck in a way. Nothing like waiting and not being able to eat while waiting for an afternoon procedure. Happily I had an excellent roommate. Bob a Yankee fan. We were able to have both televisions, one on the Yankee game and the other on the New York Giants. This was the game before they clinched the world series.