I met with my own psychiatrist April 22nd for my psych eval... this is the guy I've been seeing for 8 years now. I called my surgeon weekly to see if they had received the clearance and they hadn't. I called the psych weekly to see if there was a problem and he said, no, that he was going to send it.

Fast forward to last Saturday, May 24th (a month later), and I met with my psych for my regular 90 day med followup. He told me he was working on the letter and just needed the fax number from me (which he had before April 22nd -- on the script he made me get from the surgeon requesting a psych eval). I gave him the fax number again and he said he would send it off. Monday, Memorial Day, he called and asked me for the fax number again. Tuesday, when I saw the surgeon, he said he hadn't received a fax. The office staff contacted the psych asking for the letter and he said he had faxed it twice but something must be wrong with their fax machine because his fax machine showed the fax had gone through.

Today, Wednesday, I called my surgeon and they still don't have the letter. I called the psych and he said he's going to scan the letter and email it because something is obviously wrong with their fax machine.

The surgeon wanted to get the letter into the entire package to ship out to the insurance company on Tuesday and now is afraid my surgery won't get authorized in time for June 9th.

Do you think if my surgery gets delayed for this and I harm my psych that it might be difficult for me to get another psych to approve the surgery???

Wow!! Any chance you can pick it up and hand deliver it??

Unbelievably frustrating! I had a similar issue with my GP's office not sending a fax for MONTHS! It nearly sent me over the edge!

That's crap!

If I were you I would go and get it and hand deliver it to your surgeon.

This might be out of your way but at least you know it's in their hands then.

Good luck with everything.

I'm going to call the surgeon again before I leave work today and if they don't have it, I will drive to the psych's office (1-1/2 hours away from work) and pick it up and hand deliver it tomorrow.

The bad part is, if you go off on your psychiatrist and tell them how you REALLY feel... well then you get labeled even crazier! LOL

and this is the person who is determining if you are stable enough to have surgery. *rolling eyes*

pretty sure this is why they use psychologists at my hospital... lil less whacko than psychiatrists...... (a friend is going through something similar... she is off of work due to anxiety and needs very specific paperwork for her job... first for getting paid while off and then so she can go back to work... the doc has: been late, no show for appts, claimed she had appts when she didnt, or didnt when she did, not returned her frantic phone calls, not faxed her paperwork even when reminded more than once, not refilled her scripts, insisted she take medicine that made her sick in the past.... how does this man even keep his job?? it boggles the mind. he seems not just incompetent, but crazy too!)

@@Ginger Snaps I would go easy on the psych Dr. so you can avoid inpatient therapy vs surgery

If your at work and near a fax machine why not call the psych Dr. first and have him fax it to YOU since it is about you and then you can get it over to your Dr?

When I went through this surgery both my husband and myself I did not leave things to chance with all these tests and results. Though the many Dr.'s offices didn't like it I made them give me copies of the test results and clearance letters on the spot or fax them to me directly.Then I made a copy for my own files before giving them to my surgeon so that if they came up with something "missing" I would have a back up of it and I could provide it and not have to wait for another office or administrative staff to send it over on my behalf.

These days we have to advocate for ourselves or we won't get anything done that we want or the way we want it.

Best of luck to you!

@@lisacaron -- Saturday when I was at the psych office, I actually offered to take the letter and deliver it to my surgeon but he hadn't written it up yet (a month after our visit). This morning when I called him, I asked if I could give him my fax number so I could deal with trying to get it to the surgeon but he wouldn't do that either saying he was going to scan and email it to them. And, yes, trying to avoid involuntary commitment (or arrest!)

@@moonlitestarbrite -- I wish I would have just gone with one of the psych's my surgeon had on his list but I figured it would be easier to use my regular doc. I guess I guessed wrong on the coin flip (which would work best).

I think one problem with psych's in general is that the more you push or demand your rights or try to be assertive, the more irrational you look because OBVIOUSLY someone with a psych degree is more put together than you are.

i navigated everything away from the hospital I had the surgery done, and YES, every time something was faxed, it wasn't faxed, and it was all different doctors, so fax was coming from different machines. Finally I had enough and when ever I had anything done I would tell them to fax a copy, and hand me a copy so I could personally deliver. Worked for me. Good luck!

Ugh, that is so frustrating. I'm sorry that you are dealing with all of that. I found that in my process the easiest thing for me to do was go to all the doctors that my surgeon recommended. (Luckily, they were all covered by my insurance). So I went to HIS recommended psych and she faxed it over right away, like within the same week. She was really sweet too, I'd go back to her if she was 60 minutes away from me. Anyway, just a suggestion if you needed to do a last minute eval and the doc has a recommended psych the office always uses!

I see my psych. every 3 months for medication, also see a counselor every other week. Doc you think I could've used one of them? My psychologist has written these letters b 4. But my surgeon has a specific psych that he sends us too, so I will be seeing him. Just glad my ins is paying for it.

It all worked out, I got the report in and after a couple of calls to the insurance requesting an urgent review, I'm all set to go tomorrow morning.

My surgeon had a list of doctors he routinely works with but didn't require I use one of those psych's. I'm not sure if it would have been easier. I thought if I used my regular doctor I wouldn't have to go through all the questions and stuff I might have to if I went to a completely new doctor who hadn't seen me before.

It's all history now... moving on...