My Neurosurgery Referral Has Left the Chat
There is a special kind of optimism involved in being told, “We’ll send a referral.”
For most people, this presumably means that somewhere in the healthcare system, information travels from Point A to Point B and eventually results in an appointment.
In my case, the referral occasionally appears to achieve consciousness, reconsider its life choices, and disappear.
I have a complicated sacral neurological condition involving symptomatic Tarlov cysts. Over the past few years, I have been referred.. or supposedly referred.. to public neurosurgery multiple times. I’ve genuinely lost count. I think we're somewhere around seven.
Some referrals have been declined. Some redirected. Others apparently never arrived. And at least one recent referral that I was told had been made simply doesn't exist in the receiving system.
It's difficult to argue with something that doesn't exist.
This is particularly impressive because other specialists have essentially said, “This is outside my scope; she needs somebody more appropriate.” One specialist declined my case because it was too complex to assess properly within the standard ACC appointment and suggested finding an appropriately qualified specialist instead. Another reviewed my information, decided he wasn't the appropriate specialist, and recommended that I see a neurosurgeon.
Which seems reasonable.
Except eventually you notice the pattern:
Doctor → Referral → Specialist → Different Specialist → Referral → ??? → Kittie still sitting at home.
The terminology changes. Declined. Redirected. Cancelled. Not received. Not in the system.
From the patient's end, however, these are remarkably similar medical treatments.
They all involve nothing happening.
And when you're living with progressive neurological symptoms, severe pain and bladder and bowel dysfunction, disappearing paperwork isn't a cute administrative inconvenience. Time is passing while everybody decides whose department you aren't.
I've become something of a healthcare homing pigeon.
People keep pointing me toward neurosurgery.
I just never seem to arrive.
Perhaps one day one of my referrals will successfully complete the journey.
Until then, if anyone sees a small frightened referral wandering around New Zealand carrying my name and looking confused, please give it some water and point it toward Neurosurgery.
It has been through a lot.