Concern About Extended Appointment Triage Delay +Prior ER misrouting(s
Hi everyone I am hoping to hear from others who have been through the Mayo intake process, especially when the appointment triage stage takes longer than expected.
I submitted my records a little over two weeks ago for evaluation in Sleep (neurology) medicine. I am self paying now because Mayo doesn't take my current insurance, and I also applied for financial assistance after losing my job and the insurance that did cover Mayo. I am not sure whether that affects the timeline, but the wait has been scary.
My case does not fit neatly into standard insomnia or behavioral sleep medicine. I have posted elsewhere about the extreme wakefulness and perceptual distortions, (often overlapping with the para-insomnia seen in KLS and Narcolepsy, minus the hyper-somnolence ) but I do not generate normal sleepiness even on multiple sedating medications. A sleep neurologist (not Mayo) said he hand no idea what else to do and rejected an appointment with me too. Another neurologist said the same. A respirator sleep doctor said, "I have no idea." Even a psychiatrist told me, "If I knew what caused this, I don't think I'd be working a day job," which characterizes the zebra nature of it.
One of my concerns, and part of why I am on edge about the triage delay, is that in past ER visits my symptoms were quickly routed into psychiatric triage when nothing immediately obvious showed up on basic labs. Even when there were medical "yellow flags," the focus shifted to psychiatry instead of neurology or sleep medicine, which delayed appropriate evaluation and made follow up care harder.
During one ER visit, I had perceptual distortions involving the analog wall clock that felt so real I assumed it was part of a neurological test. Because I thought it WAS a test, I didn't mention it at the time. Only later did I realize it wasn't a test at all. Experiences like that make me nervous about being mis-srouted again, which is why the long triage wait has been stressful. ( Serious question: is there any kind of wall clock based test in the ER, or was that just an illusion from extreme sleep deprivation?)
I am really hoping Mayo's interdisciplinary apporach might clarify what is going on, beyond the "chemical duct tape" I'm currently using just to function. but the long triage period has me worried being told again that "someone else can handle this," even though local specialist havesaid they don't know what else to do. I also feel pressure to get this done I am still well enough to advocate for myself, which becomes nearly impossible after several days without sleep.
Has anyone else experienced a long triage period like this? Did it still lead to an appointment? I'd appreciate any insight into what delays mean, or not mean, in the process. Last time I tried to get an appointment (early in the period of a major "relapse"), I was told, "I'm sure you can find someone for insomnia, it's Scottsdale," which wasn't accurate for my situation.
Thank you all.
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Referral from a Mayo Dr will get in . I had a referral from Mayo Clinic health systems dr and got me into Rochester. I go to MCHS for all my care and I have the type of insurance that they take.