The Call

I got a call today from Dr. Amson's office. I knew it was his office not just because of my special "Spidey-sense" but also because the phone's menu said who was calling. Oh my God, what do they want?"
Right from the very beginning we wait for the call. First of all it is the referral. Our GPs letter finally made it through to the surgeon's office and now they have selected me for an appointment next week. Well that would have been nice. Nope, they got the referral alright but the doctor is busy and won't be able to see me for three months. Well at least I got an appointment. A couple weeks later I get another call, it was the surgeon's office and they had a cancellation. Would I be able to go to it? Oh boy, sure. But that was followed shortly by another call asking "You don't mind if it is Sooke, do you?" I don't care, sure. But I am really beginning to wonder about their scheduling proceedure.
After that first meeting, I was told "we will call you when we have a date, but just keep coming in for your appointments."
The hard part about having appointments schedule four or five months apart is that there is always so many opportunities for things to change. Each one got changed somehow somewhere. And also, now that the staff got to know me, I was the one to call when they had a last minute change and needed to shove me somewhere. But I didn't complain. You can see the grief that the staff goes through once you have started spending some time in Dr. A's waiting room.
Then there was a shift. All my tests were done, Dr. A said "I was ready" and I would get that call when he had some surgery time. My time had arrived! Well no it didn't. It took another year or three more appointments before I got my date. In the meantime I would get a call from the Dr's office and I would be bouncing off the wall in anticipation - no - it was just to remind me that my appointment was next week. Sigh.
Finally Ailsa did call and it wasn't to change an appointment, or to get some more tests, this really was it. I got the call just before Dr. A went on holidays in July which meant I had over three months to brew about my date.
Earlier in September I did get another call. This one was asking me if I would consider giving up my date for another patient. I said I would leave the choice up to the surgeon. So my next call could be a good one or a bad one. I had no idea. But when I saw the office's ID on my phone, my heart goes up, I start to worry, take a deep breath and answer the phone.
Now I have had my surgery but I got a call today and the first thing I did was worry. I think we are trained to worry when we hear the phone ring.