Time for another installment of this Wednesday/Sunday night series!
Picking up from last time –
In mid November, I officially got the packet in the mail with the denial letter. UCLA also sent me my chart (without me even asking), which I thought was nice of them.
I wrote my donor coordinator asking if she’d heard anything from Dr. R.
At some point, I’d followed up with an email, asking what we should do next (since Dr. R had mentioned I’d need follow-ups and a nephrologist and such). But I didn’t hear back.
I’m assuming it was just because he got busy helping all these people who were actually dying from kidney failure, as opposed to the girl who’s worried her protein is somewhat too high. Or maybe my email just got lost in the shuffle or the bowels of the internet or wherever.
Whatever ended up happening to it, I didn’t want to be too bothersome. So, after I got my rejection letter, I followed up with my donor coordinator, asking if she knew what I should do next.
I had to talk to her anyway because somehow I’d received a bill for one of the kidney tests, which she said she’d make sure was rerouted/taken care of… Obviously any further testing is paid out of my insurance, since I’m not currently a candidate. But any previous testing is paid for by the kidney acquisition fund.
I’d also noticed there weren’t any notes from the psychologist or social worker in my chart. So, I asked about that too. My donor coordinator said they don’t give out anything pertaining to those visits. I thought that was a little odd… As a patient, shouldn’t I have access to my full chart? I have no idea what the rules are on that.
Either way, I didn’t push it, because I didn’t really care. I kind of wanted to be able to go through them, as I did with the ones from OSU. But considering how well the interviews went, I doubt there’s anything that would be surprising in there.
(And even if there was, it’s nothing bad enough to stop me from donating. So, why would I want to read anything surprising or bad if it doesn’t affect me? It would’ve been nice to read good things, but I already felt good about the interviews. And I was approved by the mental health professionals. Can’t that be enough?)
So, I’m letting that one go (getting that part of my chart) without any fight at all.
Anyway, back to the main question at hand – asking my donor coordinator about my next steps. She said the next good step is to talk to my primary care physician and see how he wants me to handle it – with a nephrologist, or what he wants to do.
I didn’t have a primary care physician (which I guess is kind of silly…).
So, I got one – a physician based out of UCLA, hoping if I kept it all in the UCLA family that might keep things easier. The first one I tried wasn’t taking new patients. I asked the donor coordinator if she recommended anyone… He also wasn’t taking new patients. Finally, I found a doctor with some room for new patients – in about 3 months.
I took that three-months-away appointment. February 2nd, 2015.
This is where we’ll pick up next time.