Finding a new doctor is never fun. Especially when we liked our last doctors so much. It would be difficult to find any other clinic that measured up to the clinic we went to in Texas.
First off, not all doctors around these parts are taking new patients. When you do find one that will take you on, you have to wait a quite a while to get an appointment.
After being turned down by a couple of doctor offices, I took the recommendation of a neighbor and called to make an appointment with the doctor that she has gone to for many years. Her doctor wasn't taking new patients, but another doctor in the same office was. I made appointments for both Randy and me.
I used the four weeks that we had until our appointments to make sure that both of our records were transferred from Texas. After two faxes and six phone calls, I was assured by 'Pamela' at our new clinic in Mountain Home that both Randy and my files were there.
A week later, I have my appointment to see Dr 'Smith'. I wasn't really surprised to find that they had no record of my records.
Sigh.
The office was busier than busy. And very noisy. I was lucky that with the large population of hearing impaired people in Mountain Home, the nurses were practically using megaphones to call patients back to see the doctor.
Dr 'Smith's' nurse, who seemed less than happy to be there, welcomed me to the office. Since she didn't even attempt a fake smile when she said that, I didn't put a lot of sincerity into the greeting. The nurse did the usual: weighed me, measured me, took my blood pressure and pulse, asked me a few questions. So far, I seem to be normal.
Left alone, I played Bubble Blaster on my phone for about fifteen minutes to wait for the doctor.
I won't go into a play by play about my conversation with the doctor. I am sure that she is a fine and competent doctor. To me, though, there was just something off about the whole thing.
I was asked the last time I had a flu shot, a shot for pneumonia or a tetanus shot. I have never had a flu shot, I didn't know there was a vaccination for pneumonia and think the last time I had a tetanus shot was about 1975 when I was taking down some posters that I had stapled to the ceiling in my bedroom.
Either I got a rock from the ceiling texture or a staple from the poster in my eye. I can't remember if mom and dad were ever annoyed by the decor of our bedrooms, but I am pretty certain that Dad wasn't too pleased to have to take me to the emergency room with cuts in my eye from either a staple or a ceiling rock. My bad eye, at that.
Again, sorry, Dad.
Anyway ~
Dr. 'Smith' said that she didn't want to give me any vaccinations because she didn't have my records to see when that last time I had them.
Well, good. Because I didn't want any vaccinations. I guess I was a bit put off that she was assuming I was going to have the shots.
We talked about the normal check ups to schedule, one of those being a colonoscopy since I am now over the age of fifty.
Fifty's nifty, y'all.
My hip has been bothering me and just by me standing up and pointing to my hip, she diagnosed it as being bursitis. I could have done that on WebMD.
While I knew that this first appointment was more of a meet and greet, I did have the assumption that I would be able to talk to her about a couple of issues that were important to me. When I started to bring up the first of my concerns, the doctor ignored me and just kept writing her notes. I tried again to briefly explain the concerns said, Dr 'Smith' said to me, "Don't you think we have enough on our plate for now?"
By this time, I was tired and I had to pee. I let what she said annoy me.
I was then ushered into a small and still noisy waiting room to await the summons for blood work, with instructions not to leave after the blood draw without talking to Dr 'Smith's' nurse. Thirty minutes into my wait, I concerned about the battery in my phone holding out and seriously considered leaving when a nurse called me and handed me some paperwork. Apparently, they had scheduled the tests for me. Okay, I will look at the bright side of that. If they gave the patients the information to schedule their own appointments, most probably wouldn't do it.
I was told to keep waiting, as I still had to be poked by the vampire in the lab coat. After fifteen more minutes and two stabs, I was short three vials of blood.
My next stop was the appointment desk to set up two more appointments, one for the two issues that were shelved because of our full plate, the other for an exam of the female nature.
I asked the appointment lady why did I have to have two appointments, couldn't everything be done in one? The other two things were not major, nor time consuming. The appointment lady said that there is only enough time given for one thing at a time.
I still had to pee, so I let that annoy me as well.
The next day, Randy had an appointment with the very same doctor and didn't have any of the issues that I had. Dr 'Smith' had also asked him about the vaccinations, but went on to explain that with the older generation in Mountain Home, pneumonia and the flu never go away. Had that been explained to me, I would have fully understood. I still would have declined the shots.
He also got the results from his blood work the next day.
I, however, am still waiting.
Have the BEST day ever!
~ Dorothy
After I finished this post last night, the nurses office called me with my lab results (I'm gonna live). She also told me that they had found my records from Texas. Life is full of second chances. I am not giving up on Dr 'Smith' yet.
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