On 4/3, I made a blog entry that covered several thoughts. One of them being the problems that were we having with our Charter Internet Service.
A representative from Charter Communications, an Abby Catron - Social Media Communications Specialist from Town & Country, MO 63017 wrote me because she had seen my blog entry.
On a followup email to Abby, I explained a few issues and thoughts that I had concerning Charter Communications.
Abby was kind enough to email me back and gave me a credit for a months worth of internet service to make up for the problems with the internet service that we had experienced.
I wanted to publicly Thank Abby for taking the time to write me and make things right.
Unfortunately it seems that the steps that Charter Communications took forward, well today they took twice as many backwards.
It was already a tough day to begin with...**see earlier blog entry just prior to this one.
After receiving the results from an MRI that I had done, I was pretty well tied up trying to make contact with several medical professionals to discuss the results of that MRI and also to figure out a game plan on what to do next and also make several appointments.
A lot of these calls were long distance, not that this makes much difference in what happened.
Several times while trying to make these calls, I could not get a dial tone on any of the home phones.
After checking off and on during the day, we discovered that our phone service would intermittently shut down.
I was actually in the middle of discussing the MRI results with my Oncologists nurse only to be talking to myself because the phone service shut down.
Over the period of several hours during this already hectic and stressful day, both Veronica and I would check our house phone and noticed that our phone calls were getting redirected to our telephone service mailbox....aka voicemail.
We couldn't get those messages by the usual way....using our home phones because our phone service was out.
We then tried to access our telephone mailbox using our cell phones but we didn't know the access code. We had never needed to access our telephone mailbox with actually using our home phone so we didn't really know what our code was.
Now try to imagine getting some really potentially bad medical results and trying to juggle 3-4 different medical entities while trying to take care of this business on a telephone that worked for 30 seconds and then didn't for minutes at a time. Now add in the fact that we couldn't access our telephone mailbox and then throw in a dash of getting cut of in the middle of a medical discussion after finally being able to get through to someone on our home phone.
Needless to say, I was at wits end and really did not need this added aggravation on top of what was already a tough day.
I ended up calling up a Charter Service personal and told him about the problem.
He ran a few tests and then had me unplug our phone modem, wait a few seconds and plug it back it.
After the modem went through its upload cycle, it appeared to be working. It did not work for long and has been going on and off for several hours since I spoke to that tech...as a matter of fact, it is still down as I write.
The tech that I spoke to said that there was something wrong with our line connection and not getting the right "power"..I think that is the word he used but not positive.
Either way, tomorrow afternoon I have a Charter service personnel arriving to make some type of adjustments so that our telephone will work properly.
Until then I guess I can sit and watch the green "telephone 1" light on my modem box go one and off and dream of possibly better days to come.
One last thing I would like to mention...our contract with Charter Communications ended about a month ago. Silly me...I ended up signing up for a 2 year bundle plan so that I could lock in our payments at a specific rate just in case Charter Communications increased them during that 2 year contract period and because it was cheaper to do a long term plan compared to a short term deal.
And what is worse is that if I back out of the contract, I get penalized a pro rated amount for each month left on that 2 year contract.
I hope that you readers will excuse me now...besides having to try to regroup from today's stressful issues, I now also need to go into the bathroom and remove the lettering from my forehead that spells out "stupid".
WTF - Also Known As Another Day Another Medical Issue
This morning I went to my Chiropractor in an attempt to get my back to feeling better.
I arranged to have a copy of the MRI that I had taken on my hip faxed to him.
When I got there for my appointment, he sat me down and was obviously somewhat confused.
He asked me to go over what tests had been done on me and what doctors I have seen and he wanted it in a chronological order.
I did the best I could to fill him in.
He then discussed the findings that were on the MRI.
I kind of knew what was on there based on what my family doctor had discussed with me.
What I could not remember is if my local Oncologist had discussed these findings with me. As hard as I tried, I could not remember him ever discussing the results of an MRI that he prescribed for me, after I complained about the pain that I was experiencing in my upper right leg and hip.
The first time that I can remember anyone discussing the results with me was when my family doctor talked to me about the findings during an office visit 5 weeks after the MRI was done. My family doctor suggested that I go to an Urologist for followup.
I finally got a copy of this report from my Chiropractor and I was rather alarmed at what I read.
I am really perplexed as to why my Oncologist never reviewed the results with me.
Because I was not happy with this Oncologist, even prior to these findings coming to light, I had already made a change so that I could go back and see my old Oncologist that I had been seeing for years, prior to moving to the Outer Banks.
I suppose that it is possible that I somehow "fell through the cracks" after I switched back over to my old Oncologist.
But I would also think that a doctor that sees these types of results,would have at least made telephone contact with me even if I had switch him for a different doctor.
After discussing the MRI findings with my Chiropractor, he promptly faxed the findings to my Oncologist in Virginia and also made a telephone call to them to let them know that the MRI had been faxed to them.
After leaving the Chiropractors office, I went to the Regional Medical Center where I have had all MRIs and X-Rays done since we moved to the Outer Banks.
I will be picking up copies of everything that they have on file for me on Monday.
I will either take those files with me personally or have them shipped overnight to my Oncologists office.
I wanted him to have them before I go to see him, which is this next Thursday. I am hoping that if I get them to him early enough, he can have one of his radiologists read the MRI and X-Rays because they are more experienced with seeing and understanding what Mast Cell Disease looks like on the MRIs and X-Rays.
Other than that, there is not much more that I can do. Unfortunately I might have lost some valuable time depending on the outcome of the Radiologist readings and interpretations of the MRI and X-Rays.
I also just started taking my 30 day supply of Cipro treatment today.
So to say that things are all up in the air and that I have even less answers than I did before, that would be a great understatement.
Good news...I got the ok to start back into my weight lifting workouts as long as I watch the type of movements and lifting that I do, so that I don't further aggravate my lower back.
I will start my weight lifting routine up again tomorrow. It will give me something to keep me busy and to focus on other than all of this other medical stuff. But for today, I think that I will try to relax as much as possible and just let everything sink in.
Below is a copy of the MRI results that I finally got to see. To enlarge it, just click on it:
I arranged to have a copy of the MRI that I had taken on my hip faxed to him.
When I got there for my appointment, he sat me down and was obviously somewhat confused.
He asked me to go over what tests had been done on me and what doctors I have seen and he wanted it in a chronological order.
I did the best I could to fill him in.
He then discussed the findings that were on the MRI.
I kind of knew what was on there based on what my family doctor had discussed with me.
What I could not remember is if my local Oncologist had discussed these findings with me. As hard as I tried, I could not remember him ever discussing the results of an MRI that he prescribed for me, after I complained about the pain that I was experiencing in my upper right leg and hip.
The first time that I can remember anyone discussing the results with me was when my family doctor talked to me about the findings during an office visit 5 weeks after the MRI was done. My family doctor suggested that I go to an Urologist for followup.
I finally got a copy of this report from my Chiropractor and I was rather alarmed at what I read.
I am really perplexed as to why my Oncologist never reviewed the results with me.
Because I was not happy with this Oncologist, even prior to these findings coming to light, I had already made a change so that I could go back and see my old Oncologist that I had been seeing for years, prior to moving to the Outer Banks.
I suppose that it is possible that I somehow "fell through the cracks" after I switched back over to my old Oncologist.
But I would also think that a doctor that sees these types of results,would have at least made telephone contact with me even if I had switch him for a different doctor.
After discussing the MRI findings with my Chiropractor, he promptly faxed the findings to my Oncologist in Virginia and also made a telephone call to them to let them know that the MRI had been faxed to them.
After leaving the Chiropractors office, I went to the Regional Medical Center where I have had all MRIs and X-Rays done since we moved to the Outer Banks.
I will be picking up copies of everything that they have on file for me on Monday.
I will either take those files with me personally or have them shipped overnight to my Oncologists office.
I wanted him to have them before I go to see him, which is this next Thursday. I am hoping that if I get them to him early enough, he can have one of his radiologists read the MRI and X-Rays because they are more experienced with seeing and understanding what Mast Cell Disease looks like on the MRIs and X-Rays.
Other than that, there is not much more that I can do. Unfortunately I might have lost some valuable time depending on the outcome of the Radiologist readings and interpretations of the MRI and X-Rays.
I also just started taking my 30 day supply of Cipro treatment today.
So to say that things are all up in the air and that I have even less answers than I did before, that would be a great understatement.
Good news...I got the ok to start back into my weight lifting workouts as long as I watch the type of movements and lifting that I do, so that I don't further aggravate my lower back.
I will start my weight lifting routine up again tomorrow. It will give me something to keep me busy and to focus on other than all of this other medical stuff. But for today, I think that I will try to relax as much as possible and just let everything sink in.
Below is a copy of the MRI results that I finally got to see. To enlarge it, just click on it:
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