“Take this referral. Go see your oncologist, get the x-rays and come back.” In one visit, my doctor had solved a problem my oncologist was still puzzling over. I’ve had an exhausting, productive cough that is so strong, it often makes me toot my butt trumpet. My oncologist wanted to send me for chest x-rays and PET scans of my chest. But with my insurance, approval was required to get either.   via GIPHY So my oncologist ordered the PET scans and two weeks later, I’d now had the cough for a total of 7 weeks. It started out like this in the first two weeks so I refused antibiotics. via GIPHY And now it’s slightly similar to having the plague. I’m very lucky in that my oncologist has a person on staff that works things out with my insurance carrier, keeping tabs and sending all the nitpicky nonsense they ask for before you’re allowed to say, wipe your ass. On a whim, I decided to see if I could get my primary care physician to work on the issue separately. Sure enough, she knew a loophole that allowed me to go for my x-ray immediately. Turns out, as my primary doctor, there are things she can send me for and get same-day results. “Wait, I thought you said to come back next week?” via GIPHY I was exhausted from not getting more than two hours sleep since Sunday. And easily confused by simple sentences. It was now Tuesday, a week

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