Friday... again.

It's taken me a while to post this just because I'm so frustrated and upset about it.


STILL at Mercy. The communication between Cedars-Sinai and Mercy has been abysmal. It's a big, big mess. It turns out that the MRIs sent by Mercy to Cedars had actually been OF HER ABDOMEN, NOT HER BRAIN. Understandably, Dr. Patel (the physician/neurosurgeon at Cedars) wants to see a recent MRI, which they were in the process of doing when we left. 


The case worker requested ALL the scans from Memorial, they'll combine them with the ones they've done at Mercy, including the MRI from tonight, and then Matt and I will physically drive them down to Cedars tomorrow morning. We have the address and everything.

Dr. Patel needs to look at her scans and say that he wants to admit her, and then the transfer can happen! Matt and Eliza were on a conference call with his assistant person/RN administrator Jason Villalobos today. There is a specific trial they are doing with people who have tumor recurrences after having them surgically removed, and Penny may be a great candidate for it, which means they're even more interested in her. Jason has promised to do everything he can to clear things up on the Cedars side. 

I spoke with Dr. Alshaer (Penny's physician at Mercy) today on the phone. He is going to call Dr. Young's (Penny's neurologist at Mercy, whose idea Cedars was, and who has connections there) cell phone tomorrow morning to tell him the current situation, and then has promised to call me afterward. He says that sometimes it takes a week to get people into Cedars because they don't have any open beds. I suspect he said that a-to try to mollify me, and b- because it's true. (My mom can vouch that this does happen, and has happened at her hospital.) He has also promised to do everything he can to make this go through. (I didn't know at the time that the wrong MRIs had been sent, or I would have told him. I plan to tell him tomorrow when he calls.) Dr. Alshaer is also (understandably) skeptical that the transfer will happen before Monday morning, since it's afterhours.


Here's the thing: Dr. Patel isn't scheduled to be in again until Monday morning. So, please, if you know anyone who works with Cedars-Sinai, please, please, please call them. Pray, send good thoughts, anything. Post things on Facebook, Twitter, Google +. Every little bit helps. Pray that Matt and I can get the records to the right place, and that SOMEONE who can sign off on admitting Penny (preferably Dr. Patel, but I'll take anyone) will be in this weekend to look at her records and scans, and will sign off, so we can get her transferred ASAP.


Love you all. Thanks for your love and support.


(If you need to get in touch with either me or Matt, you can reach us at our respective e-mails. c.b.swenson(at)gmail for me, franchisematt(at)gmail for him.)


Cristina