My Aching Knee

by Insurance Guru

The planets aligned, the Angels sang and my knee surgery happened! All those things seriously had to happen first. I have never had to work so hard to get 30 minutes of surgery.

Two years ago, I had the same exact procedure done to the other knee. A couple of X-rays, an MRI, an ortho appointment, a couple of phone calls and boom... done deal. Then it was a couple of post-op days on pain pills, a post-op visit a few weeks later and on with my life.

This time around it has taken me 7 months of calls, visits, calls and more calls to get this done. Even when the paperwork was going where it was supposed to, I still needed a pre-op physical, labs, CXR, & EKG... that equals four more appointments. I just had a physical last August (with lab and CXR). Another pre-op visit to make sure my crutches were sized and another visit to discuss the surgery. It's a flap of knee cartiledge people... not a liver transplant. I wasn't even under general anesthesia.

24 hours before the surgery, my surgeon's office called to say my PCP had not faxed over all the pre-op paperwork and they needed it in the next 45 minutes or we would need to reschedule. Perfect.

I drive to my PCP's office and tell them I will hand carry the paperwork to the surgeon. I was informed in very haughty tones that they were taking care of it and would fax them over. In haughty-to-infinity tones I told them I wasn't leaving until this was resolved. It became a bit of a shouting match once they informed me my EKG results weren't there, I merely pointed out that they couldn't have been working on it if they just now realized that.

Well, the surgery happened, I think the knee is fixed. Although, for a simple bit of cartilage removal, I have a leg that is black and blue from the knee down. Were there some helper gorillas in there? Was I leg wrestling in my sleep? I dunno, but my lesson in all of this is beware the office staff.