Why they call us "patients"

I knew that it would take time to travel from where I was back August to DBS surgery, but I had no idea it would take this much time.  The referral from my neurologist went out on August 14th, but I wasn't scheduled for the screening until November 7th.  My last screening appointment was on November 12th, and the doctor said that since the Movement Disorders review Board was meeting on November13th, I should be getting a call "soon" to let me know what the decision of the board was and to schedule an appointment with the surgeon.  Well, the weeks went by and nobody called, so I called them and found that my test results hadn't even been presented to the board yet.  So, after the next board meeting, I started calling every other day until finally I got through to someone who knew what was going on and scheduled my appointment with the surgeon.  I told her I guessed that that meant I had passed the review board's scrutiny, and she laughed and said "yes".   I guess I kind of knew that, but it would have been nice to get a reassuring phone call about it.  The next step will be to go see the surgeon next week and hopefully it won't take too much longer to get this surgery done and get on with life.

Sigh.... I guess this is why they call us "patients".