What?!! a small journey through the Kingdom of Medical Mishaps

This morning, when I found out that my ride to my drs. appointment had vaporized, my husband called them for me and cancelled my appt. It seemed fine, and later I called them to reschedule.

A distinctly icy voice informed me:

"You are no longer a patient here. You were a no-show, and you've exceeded your limit of 3 no-shows."

But my husband called you this morning. I was there when he called!

"I don't believe you."

What?!!

Her voice was dripping hatred, and she said something about me being a total non-entity to their office, after I'd been coming there for so long! I tried to be worthy of their trust, and I trusted them. I know that they have an office policy, and I understand why, but she was treating me like I was a child molester or something. That totally threw me, and it came out of the blue.

Wow.

Okay, so I called my husband, and he said he'd talked to a guy at the answering service and was assured that he would give the office the message.

I called back.

This time, a more Receptive receptionist answered - at least she didn't Hate My Guts!

"Even if that was a mistake, you still have too many no-shows. That's our policy. Your dr. has already signed a referral."

But two of those times were also mistakes. On one, I called a day ahead and rescheduled, and the other was a reschedule that you requested, not me! I talked to you when I got the letters about not showing.

"If you talked to us, we would have removed it from our records, so it can't be a mistake."

I'm thinking - But you made a mistake today. What about that?

Would you have the dr. call me?

"Yes."

Thank you.

"You're NOT welcome." Click.

I guess she does hate me.

It takes a looong time for a dr. to get a handle on the numerous idiosyncracies of my system, and this doctor had done an outstanding job of listening and considering what I was telling him. That is so hard to find, and I just couldn't let this go without a challenge.

I called and spoke with the nurse. She was understanding at least, and said the dr. wanted to call me. I also called the office manager, and he was clearly shocked when I talked to him about some of the phraseology his receptionists used.

"Are those the Exact words that were said?"

Yes, exactly. (How could I forget?)

He then went over the records with me, citing a time in March that I was a no-show.

What? I had been in contact with the nurse at that time, and I would have known if I had an appt. In fact, I was desperate to get in to see him - he'd been out of town a lot, and I'd been in the hospital a few times.

I also checked, and there was nothing on my calendar for that time.

There actually were two times that my ride just didn't show up, and I had called as soon as I realized it. Even with those two times, I was still within their policy limit of 3 no-shows.

And my doctor likes me!

I started choking up a bit. I'd had so much bad luck with medical situations over the years. I swear I am not doing it on purpose, no matter what kind of death wish is lurking in my subconscious. Anyway, I talked to the doc and we got it straightened out. Yay!

But, as I said, I've had some bad luck, ever since someone called my OB dr., without my knowledge, and told him I was making things up and that I just laid around all the time!

Another time, in the hospital, the dr. forgot to write orders for insulin and the nurse said I must not need it any more!

Again, during another stay in the hospital, I told a nurse that my blood sugar was low and so I didn't need my insulin shot Before my meal. She acted fine about it, but then she wrote in the notes that I refused to take insulin! At my next appt., my doctor said he couldn't treat me if I refused to take insulin.

What?!

From then on, he acted differently towards me, and when I saw his nurse's notes one time, I realized why. In addition to the "refusal" incident, he was dealing with a crazy nurse! My daughter, Megan, and I went to an appt. early (I always had to wait at least 2 hours to see him), and Megan went in to check on the dr.'s schedule while I waited in the car. No point going inside that early if we'd be waiting so long. It was a simple request for information, no big deal, and we never thought anything more it. I had my regular appt. and things were fine, but in the notes for that day, the nurse had written that I came in (she knew who I was) and started screaming at them, demanding to see the doctor right then!

What?!!

Megan and I laughed over that one, and I found another doctor. No way to conquer that much misinformation.

Another doctor told me I had fired him during a hospital stay.

He said I had told him that our family dr. was a better dr.

What?!!

He was sure it was me, although I may have been asleep at the time. Great!

Just one last highlight out of many over the years:

I went to the state fair one day, walking all over the place, and when I got home I found that the bottom of my toes had come off. Really. So I went to see a foot dr., and, even though the wounds were very deep, he just told me to put over-the-counter inserts in my shoes. So I did.

Later on, when those toes were scheduled for amputation (diagnosed by a physician's assistant at the ER - I'd gone in for something else, and she noticed my feet and ordered x-rays), I was at my followup appt., with my daughter, Melinda. After he x-rayed my toes and confirmed the prognosis, I asked him why he hadn't checked my toes for bone infection earlier. It was a simple question, something that I had just wondered about, but he didn't take it that way. His eyes got pretty wild and he yelled, "I know what you want to do! You want to sue me!"

I told him I'd never sued anyone in my life, but he didn't really listen. He jumped up out of his seat, yelling at me. "Get out of my office!" Then he proceeded to shove me down his long hall, very roughly, yelling at me the whole time.

What?!!

My daughter pulled him back at one point, saying, "No matter what, you don't shove your patients," but he went right back at it. I was too much in shock to react.

Needless to say, I got another foot dr.!

But it took me 6 months before I could stop violently shaking at each visit.

Sheesh! He's lucky I DIDN'T sue him!

Fortunately, my new dr. saw me right away, and he was the epitome of kindness. Kind of like Carlisle Cullen. No wonder I love Carlisle!

So that is why my head slopes backwards precipitously - or at least it should.

I keep slapping my forehead in astonishment, repeatedly saying,

What?!!!