Yesterday's Appointment

I have to tell you about the unbelievable experience I had yesterday.

I had a rough night with pain, the night before... and I had a hard time sleeping. I had to wake up "early" to get Jeff to work so I could use his car because I had a doctor's appointment. I tried to think of every way out... maybe I could call my dad and sound really pathetic and he'd drive me to the doctor. Maybe I could call my mom and she'd feel sorry enough for me she'd bring her car over to me. Either option sounded selfish and misleading. So I got up and got Jeff to work.

The day was rough- I still wasn't feeling well. But I plugged away and knew I'd make it to my doctors appointment.

I was dreading going to this doctor. I don't know if I've mentioned him to you or not. This is my GI doctor (here in Elgin)... he was seeing me for my fluid (in my abdomen) and for the pain I was having. He put me on Bentyl (a stomach muscle medicine) and it's really helped calm those muscles down so they don't overwork. I need that medicine. I had originally had an appointment with him in July, but since I had a horrible hernia and I wasn't feeling well, I wanted to reschedule. The office staff understood and told me to call to reschedule when I can. I had surgery on August 23rd. At the end of August, I ran out of Bentyl and there were no more refills. I called the doctor's office to request a refill and they told me they can't refill it because I haven't seen the doctor since May. (Oh no! Since MAY?!? That is, like, 3 months ago!) They told me I had canceled my July appointment and never rescheduled. I explained why and they said "When can you come in?" And I (very annoyed) replied "Well, I don't know. I'm recovering from surgery, can't drive, and I'm in a lot of pain." They "did me a favor" by refilling it this one time... but I had to make it to my next appointment or they weren't refilling it anymore. So I made an appointment for October 5th- yesterday. (They were holding my medicine HOSTAGE!)

Well, as you can imagine, I did not want to miss this appointment. But with not feeling well, I kinda didn't want to go either. But I went.

The nurse brought me back to the room and took my blood pressure. She noticed my shirt- I was wearing my "I love my husband" t-shirt. She commented "Oh, you're one of thoooooooose kinds." She then asked me how long I've been married
"Four years." I replied with a smile.
"Any kids?"
"No, but we're in our adoption process..."
"Why? You can't have kids?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I have a heart condition..."
"Oh.... I see... so are you adopting from another country?"
"No. We're just doing a domestic adoption. At this point, we can't afford an international adoption. But one day, we'd like to! My husband wants to adopt from China. And I thought it might be cool to adopt from Ethiopia or something..."
"Why not Mexico? Are you racist?"

HEEEELLLLLLOOOOO????

(The nurse is Hispanic, fyi...)

But HEEEEEELLLLLLLOOOOO????

The mean girl inside of me wanted to slap her and walk out the door. The sarcastic girl inside of me wanted to say "Yeah, I'm racist. That's why I'm seeing an Indian doctor, have a Mexican nurse, and I almost adopted a black baby."

But the sweet girl inside of me (yes, there really is one... sometimes) felt sorry for her ignorance and brushed it off like no big deal.

So anyway... she leaves me in the exam room and I wait for the doctor.

And I wait.

And I wait some more.

I hear him enter THREE other exam rooms while I wait... he saw THREE patients while I waited for him.

I heard him take a phone call from the hospital regarding a patient he did surgery on that morning... he wanted to change up one of her meds. If she can take it orally, that'd be great. If not, start in in her IV. He'd see her in the morning.

I also heard him MAKE a PERSONAL phone call to another doctor. He spoke some of his other language, but mixed English in there with it too. All I could understand was something about dinner reservations for that night. Oh, and lots of laughing.

My appointment was scheduled for 2:30pm. At 3:25, the doctor FINALLY walks in. He hardly looked at me and barely talked to me. He typed info into the laptop (their new electronic system that they were transferring over to in May, but he happened to STILL be confused on how to use it). He then sent me on my (not so) merry little way.

WASTE OF TIME!

And therefore, I refuse to go back there. Not only was I accused of being racist, but I was waiting waaaaay too long and in too much pain to be enjoying it.