Thinking back on the cerberus II appointment, it was mostly good news. There was the one issue of a single new lymph node that was enlarged. In the midst of the meeting I did not question that, but on the way home I wish I had. So I signed into the patient portal and went to the email section.

I sent the email to both the surgeon and the radiologist since they were the two in the room and both had commented on said lymph node. Again, only names are changed:

Simple enough not too long, the answer I would expect to be short and simple. This is what I received:

I have no fucking clue who this person is nor why an “admin” is responding. Especially one that does not know the rules of capitalization. And the “we”? He or she will see what it is and help make a decision? And what is with the signature of “T”?

To which I had a simple reply, and yes, I deleted the “the fuck” part of the question.

We are back to the empathy part of the equation. Let’s say a big-city-top-rated-doctor had her own medical issue. She was dealing with something out of her field … maybe breast cancer. She had a question for her doctor and sent an email, and the response came back from an unknown administrator. Would that be acceptable to her do you think? Or the top administrator of a hospital, the chairman of the board, would they accept an unknown non-medical person answering such a question?

I understand time pressures, I understand pain-in-the-ass patients, I understand bombardment by emails. I don’t understand the lack of a simple …

But noooooo, I am left to follow the advice or knowledge of an unknown admin who, for all I know, is in charge of writing directions for prescription labels.