Improving

On Wednesday, my side was very tender, and hurt with almost every movement. But I slept good on Wednesday night and woke up Thursday in pretty good shape. As the day wore on, the pain came back. I also went to the gastroenterologist yesterday. He was recommended by a family friend, and seemed like a pretty nice person. Though doctor appointments are always stressful and quick, and I always forget to write down my list of important questions. Next time I will write the list down.

The only weird thing was the nurse's insistence that I provide my social security number in order to have any procedures done in the office. Social security numbers should only be used for tax purposes. Unfortunately, they are also necessary for credit reporting.

In this day and age of rampant identity theft, we have to guard our social security numbers well. I can think of no good reason for the doctor to need my social security number. They obviously need the insurance ID in order to be paid, and in the past, I've confirmed that our insurance company does not require the social security number for doctors to be paid. The doctor agreed, but when meeting with the nurse to schedule, she said "it's our policy that to have a procedure done in the office, you have to provide your social security number" and that's the best explanation she could give. If she had said that they needed to run a credit check, I would have been disturbed, but understood. But there's no good reason to have my SSN listed on the coversheet of my medical file, available for any worker in the office to see.

At any rate, I'm going in for a Colonoscopy and Upper Endoscopy on December 2nd.

And I hope to be going back to work on Monday!!!