Unneeded Anxiety

I am going to vent.

Last week I had a biopsy done. I wasn't really worried about it, but it was in the back of my mind.

On Wednesday evening at 8pm, my cell phone rang. I was on the house phone with some stupid survey person and by the time I got rid of him, I missed the call. I didn't recognize the number, but when I listened to the voicemail, it was my doctor. Not her office, the doctor...at 8pm at night. She said she was calling with results and for me to call her back....at 8pm at night.

Of course when I called I got the answering machine and "out of office" message.

So we spent the night worried. Neither one of us voiced that worry or even mentioned it, but it was there in the room as large as an elephant. When we went to bed, there was no television until we fell asleep. We just laid there in silence.

At one point, my husband reached over and patted my hand. Then we rolled away and went to sleep...or some form of tossing, turning, dreaming, waking, tossing, turning....

I called the office the first second it was open. The nurse said that it was the doctor's day off.

Great.

I know enough to know if a nurse will give you the results of a test, it would be good news. If they won't, it isn't good news. I've been down this road before.

She put me on hold for quite awhile and then finally came back and said "I'm not supposed to give you results, but I don't want you to have to wait until tomorrow since you've already waited all night. Your results were normal."

I thanked her. I appreciate that she saw my angst and relieved that anxiety.

But it was anxiety that should never have been. Why did the doctor leave a message if she knew I couldn't reach her that evening.

I appreciate that the doctor herself was trying to deliver results, good or bad. But again, the day before her day off?

I am upset by this, but nothing compared to my husband. When I called him with the good news, he was relieved but then exploded in rage about the inconsideration and unnecessary stress it caused.

Apparently it had bothered him even more than I realized.