We are realizing that, when someone has a major health condition (like John), it is almost a full-time job to keep everything straight. In addition to his Saginaw pulmonologist, John has three Tampa General department head specialists (pulmonary, cardiology, and rheumatology). (Not to mention the three specialists that he had previously.) There is also his primary care physician and a dermatologist.

His appointments and medical tests are scheduled at least once or twice a week. Tampa General appointments are always in Tampa (either downtown across from the hospital or on the Moresani campus).

This morning I got a notice that his blood test results were available on his Tampa General “patient portal.” So I checked. Thank heavens I try to stay on top of things. He’d gone to the Sun City Center Quest Laboratory to have the blood sample taken Tuesday but since it was prescribed by a Tampa General physician, the results are always posted on the “TGH portal.” One test was available, but not the most important liver enzyme test which allows him to continue on the new medication. (That’s the medicine which would cost us $18,000 a month if he wasn’t able to get a grant so we definitely need to stick to the qualifying instructions.)

I tried for almost two hours to get through to Quest. John said on Tuesday he’d asked if they had his “on-going” prescription but none was in his Quest file. That meant that there’d been a mix-up so it was likely that the blood test hadn’t been run. I called the doctor who had prescribed the liver enzyme blood work and his office faxed the prescription to Quest.

Since we couldn’t call the lab (the phone system was just a revolving trap where you could never reach a human), we drove to Quest and sure enough the test hadn’t been done, but they had just received the new prescription so he was able to have it drawn.

What a mess!! John wouldn’t have known, if I hadn’t checked.