I am so frustrated-How do I make a doctor/nurse return my call?

[Pajama Mama]

My special needs kid had an MRI last Monday. The results were sent to the doctor on Wednesday of last week. I still do not know the results. Yes, I know it was a holiday weekend. But this is a big children's hospital who was open last Friday and Mon & Tues of this week. I have literally been carrying my cell phone around all day, everyday.

To be fair, the nurse did call once on Friday and once on Monday. We took the kids to the Carnegie Science Center on Friday. I called to warn the nurse that we might not have reception there--which we didn't. She called early Monday morning but I didn't have my cell turned on yet. My son was up sick the night before so I woke up late. Monday morning was the last time she called me. I understand that folks are busy. But I have called 3-4 times each day and just keep leaving messages.

Ds has been sick alot this winter. He's probably been in school a whole 2 weeks since Christmas break. The neuro requested the MRI because of his increased seizure activity. The nurse left a message on Friday. She essentially said that the results showed something(which they won't tell you in a message)but it wasn't an emergency. Dag nabbit, how do I get this ummm, person, to tell me what the heck is going on?

OK, whine over. Thanks for listening

[Plaid Dad]

Is the doctor located close enough to you that you can just go to the office and wait until they give you the information you need? Sometimes being there in person lights a fire under their rears. ;)

If you do need to leave another message, you can say explicitly that you give permission for the details to be left on your voicemail if they cannot get through to you.

Good luck! This must be so nerve-wracking for you!

[Holly IN]

Even if you verbally give permission to leave messages on the answering machine/voice mail to the dr or even a written one they still will not leave any messages.

(Yet they will send the results in the mail...go figure:glare:)

I have that problem with my son's endo. They are very particular about leaving message even though I said it is ok and wrote on the paper that they can leave messages. They still won't do it. I have begged them to.

My other dr's do it with no problems.

Holly

[Pajama Mama]

Yep, it's frustrating. Nope, they will not leave a message. I think that there is *something* to tell me but it's not earth shattering. Plaid Dad, dh asked me yesterday about him sitting in their office and waiting for the results:) I told him it would be a waste of time. Ds had an scheduled appointment with this neuro 3 weeks ago. We waited a whole 3 hours before the doc saw my son. While waiting at the appt I called patient services and complained about the wait. Apparently, this office is swamped. So, if it takes 3 hrs to see the doc when you have an appointment; you can imagine how long it would take to wait for test results. I just called again and left a very curt message. We'll see...

Thanks for the empathy folks:)

[kalanamak]

Do you have a PMD who can get it and at least assure you it is okay to not have it NOW? NT

[Alice]

Do you have a PMD who can get it and at least assure you it is okay to not have it NOW? NT

That's what I would do. Call your pediatrician or primary doctor. They should be able to get through to the Neurologist. They also might be able to get it faxed to them and then they can give you the results.

[Pajama Mama]

The nurse called and said my son has an arachnoid cyst in his brain. It sounds scary but it's not that serious. They will MRI his brain in a few months. If it's grown, they will put a shunt in his brain. If it hasn't grown, they will leave it alone. The increase of seizures isn't related to the cyst though. So I guess they'll need to revisit the meds that he's taking. Anyway, thanks for listening.

[Ottakee]

I saw your post that you did get the results but this is what I do:

Go to the hospital and ask for a copy of the results. I can get a print out of the report AND the actual MRI films if I want them. Sometimes it goes faster if you call a day ahead but many times they can just print out the results when you go in. Just bring a photo ID for the release forms.

I lucked out once with 11dd's EEG. The neurologist happened to be there reading it AS it was being done so I got the results in minutes.