December 1st, 2008: I called the hospital this morning to verify that I would have a bed available so that I could be admitted and start my second course of chemo today. “Oh, yes,” the charge nurse assured me, “there should be a bed for you later in the day.” I was startled when I got a call mid-afternoon from Evelyn, one of Dr. Jahan’s nurses telling me that I would be going into the hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 3rd. “No, Evelyn,” I insisted. “I’ve been planning to go into the hospital today—Dec. 1st—since my last visit with Dr. Jahan two weeks ago.” It seems that the paper work of my request for treatment to my insurance company hadn’t been submitted until today. No insurance agreement, no treatment. After strongly expressing that I should have been told about the change of date, we hung up. A half hour later, the call came from the hospital telling me that a bed was ready for me. I summarized the conversation I’d had with Evelyn and told them that I would be coming in on Dec. 3rd. “Oh, no,” the floor nurse said, “We won’t have any beds available on Wednesday.” The hospital charge nurse agreed to call Evelyn. No word from Evelyn to anyone. Finally, at 5:00 I called the hospital for a status and they said, “Don’t plan on coming in tonight. We’ll get you in here as quickly as possible.”

My upset is that I am totally ready for another round of chemo. Now, I’m facing a double bind of being scheduled for the hospital on a day when there won’t be any beds. This will delay my treatments an unknown number of days. This is not good. It’s now 8:30 in the evening, and clearly I am not going into the hospital today. As soon as I hear that I’m cleared to enter the hospital, I’ll post that information on the blog.