My New Doctor

I saw my new doctor a couple of weeks ago and I don't think I like him. He was about my age, had pretty blue eyes, but he wasn't very friendly, not a good bedside manner. I KNOW I have a pretty big health history, so I had spent 2 hours writing cliff notes for him. When we finally met, I explained that I had written this synopsis since I knew he wouldn't have time to read through my huge file. His response was, "I've seen bigger files than yours." I knew then, that we had a problem. He spent most of our time looking at his laptop and asking me questions about my meds and all that. I HAD WRITTEN IT ALL DOWN AND HE DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT IT! That irritated me some more. Then he preceded to DELETE from my file, all of the previous antibiotics I had been on, because IT WAS WASTING SPACE! I have a ton of allergies to antibiotics and other meds and he DELETES what has worked before! Now I am really not sure about him. He did spend a good 45 minutes with me, but it was out of necessity, he had to do a pre-op physical for my upcoming nerve resection. I told him that my pain doctor had put me on a Catapres patch to help with the pins and needles feeling, but that originally I had one patch and it wasn't effective enough, so my pain doc suggested I try 2 patches. Fine, except that I only got 4. Now, instead of lasting me one month, it only lasts 2 weeks and I need a refill. My new physician says that he will make sure ALL of my meds are refilled until NEXT YEAR, and he wants to see me NEXT YEAR to possibly change some meds. He just wants me to have the nerve resection and hydrodialation and deal with that first. Oh, and then I told him I had insomnia, and I was concerned that not sleeping was effecting my overall health. He said, "That's not good, but let's deal with that next year." Who is he kidding? I only get 2 hours a night on a good night! I said, "I've been taking benadryl to try and help me sleep." He said, "That's a good idea, keep doing that." Another strike against him, he expects me to go 3 more months without sleep, is he crazy? The final straw was when he said, ok I'm ordering some blood tests for you and I'll see you back in January or February. He shook my hand and left. I didn't get a blood test slip, I didn't know where to get the blood test (my previous doc had vampires right in his office). I waited a few minutes and he never returned! So I slowly made my way out to the front and asked them if I could go, and where to get the blood test. They said that it was all ordered via computer and I should just go to the lab. Then they said that they would send me a postcard about another visit next year. Great! I'm not sure if I can keep this guy as my doc...

Remember earlier I said that I was going to run out of my patch 2 weeks early? Well, it was time for a new one on Thursday last week. I called the pharmacy and they got the refill order, but the directions had not changed, and I couldn't pick it up for a week! That meant, no patch, more pins and needle feelings and even LESS SLEEP! So I called my new doc and asked them to change the RX. I called Wednesday, Thursday and FRIDAY! No response. So I went the entire weekend and had another birthday/slumber party to deal with, without the patch! Praise God I made it through the weekend and I called the pharmacy 1st thing on Monday and talked with the head pharmacist. He was unaware of the misdirections on the label. He agreed to re fax the RX to my doc and I was going to follow through and call his office AGAIN!

By this time, Virginia Mason called and scheduled my nerve resection. They still had not received my pre-op physical from my new doc. I wasn't surprised! So I had to ask the new office to send that information and while I was at it, I asked if my new doc would be my pain manager after my surgery. Previously, since my foot doc is in Seattle, he always had my previous doc take care of my pain meds because he was local and could see me more frequently. No problem, until now. I can't even get this new guy to fix a local RX with a couple of finger strokes on the keyboard, let alone help me manage my pain! I now have 2 weeks to solve this problem!

The funny thing, is that people have asked me how I liked my new doc and I've gone over the above fiasco. They immediately say that's too bad and then they suggest this new doctor at this clinic by my house! So and so loves it there they say. Well I am not so and so, and that is the clinic I went to! It must be me. You'd think that a new doctor would take me on as constant repeat business! I don' think this guy sees me like that though. I don't think he really SEES me at all.