Weaver's Web

It's been a stressful October. Much has been trying my wits and my nerves.

1) The car accident- the 28th of last month I was hit. I will not go into major detail as I've posted several times about this. However, this morning the estimator at the repair place called to say that once they had torn down the bumper assembly there was more damage than previously seen, and it will add on another week to the repair as well as another $750. I called today once again to see if the police report is done and almost 3 weeks after the fact, it still is not. I still do not have either the name of the man who hit me, nor his insurance information, if any was in force at the time of the crash. I did at least find out from the police today, that he was not killed and the preliminary report faults him for the accident, but unless I want to go down to Rohnert Park during my work day to get the face sheet to the report (they're open 9-5, M-F only), they will not give me any more details. They need to see my ID in order to release anything to me. I still will have to come up with the $500 deductible when I get my car, which now will not be till next Friday, rather than tomorrow as originally promised. I will at some point see that money again, once my insurance company collects from his, or once my uninsured motorist coverage kicks in.

2) My trip to LA sucked. I went to see Mom and as usual, it was 36 hours of mental chess. Emotionally and mentally tiring. I love and adore her, but comments like, "I don't understand why you divorced your family," are wounding. That combined with the drive south thru a monsoon, and the drive back detouring around the I-5 closure on the LA side of the Grapevine made it a very long weekend.

3) My %$#@ing neck has been throbbing for the past three days. Woke up on Monday with it aching and it's just not letting up.

4) I'm behind in my own paper work. I've been taking two days a week to work on it, and letting my PA see patients, but somehow every last person in my office MUST ask me questions while I'm trying to get the paperwork done and hence it's like plodding through quicksand.

5) Exacerbating it all, is that even though I'm really working hard, there is so much stuff not getting in front of me in a timely manner that its jacking my frustration level up around my ears. Patients coming in for follow up and either lab results or ER notes or consultation notes aren't back, and I have to get a staff person to scramble to call for them, taking them away from the work they were doing. Chart notes that I'm certain I dictated are not on the chart, either due to my transcriptionist being way behind, or my staff person here in the office not having had time to put the notes into the chart. Letters to colleagues I dictated on the first of the month, finally arrived here today to be mailed, so they won't be seen until the beginning of next week, three weeks after they were dictated.

6) I wind up doing things that have to be done for people's benefit, that I will never get compensated for. Yesterday, while I was trying to get my paperwork done, I had a call from a doc from the endocrine clinic down at the University about a mutual patient. It seems that patient's mother called him all concerned about a serious long-standing medical problem and as the man's primary provider, the specialist called me. I wound up spending 25 minutes on the phone over 3 separate phone calls with the specialist, 15 minutes over 2 calls to the man's mother (he was at work and not reachable) and another 20 minutes over two calls to the pharmacy where he gets his drugs, or more importantly, where he has NOT been getting his drugs on a regular basis. This gentleman has a hormone disorder, which could, if not adequately treated, kill him in short order. By checking up on him with the pharmacy where his mother picks up his meds for him, it turns out he's been missing more than half of what he's supposed to be taking, for at least the past 6 months. AND he wonders why he hasn't been feeling well.....

It was the right thing for me to do, to sort out this problem and hopefully, with his mom riding heard on him, the appropriate meds will be taken. However, as I did not physically see this man, despite the fact that I spent a good hour either on the phone or going over his papers from both his chart and his med refills from the pharmacy, I CANNOT BILL for this care. There is something very wrong with this scenario.

It's 8:30pm - I need to go home.