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I went in for a physical the other day. Now, I was sick at that time — not real sick, not COVID, probably RSV since that was going around, and since also the transmission timeline tracks. I was in the middle of it and honestly, still have a really irritating cough (though, be advised, nothing serious, just annoying). I went in with a mask on.
Nobody at the doctor’s office was wearing a mask. Lady at the front desk: “Oh, you don’t have to wear that!” That said, while pointing at my mask. I say, I’ve got a cold, she lets it go. I then fill out the paperwork that talks about my current situation: what meds I’m taking, have I been in surgery, etc.
Then, the nurse lady comes and gets me. First thing she says, pointing at my mask: “You don’t need to wear that in here.” She says it like it’s a favor to me, like, oh, honey, we’re not going to be mean and make you wear that big ol’ horrible ugly mask around your beautiful breathing hole and your luxurious food-catcher of a beard, why don’t you just pop that thing off and suck in a lungful of America.
You don’t need to wear that in here?
Well, I fucking do, SANDRA, because as it turns out, the doctor’s office is where the sick people go. It’s like going to the pharmacy. You mask anywhere, do it in the pharmacy. Everybody in there is horking up lung beef. The respiratory illness is so thick in the air you can catch it on your tongue like snowflakes. I go there, or the doctor’s office, sick people are going to be present. That’s the deal, obviously, wtf. I don’t want what they have, and nobody present should want what I have, what the fuck.
I say, again, I’m sick. I’ll keep the mask on, thanks.
Then she measures me and all that shit, and says, somewhat aggressively, “You are not 5’8″.”
“What?”
“You have it down that you’re five feet eight inches.”
“Okay.”
“You’re only five feet seven and three-quarters.”
“…okay. S… sorry?”
It was such a weird ding, I still don’t know what to make of it? Like, “Hah, gotcha, you were pretending to be a NORMAL HUMAN with a NORMAL HUMAN HEIGHT, but I have discovered a GNOME AMONGST US.”
So then Nurse Sandra, not her name, asks what medications I’m taking and if I’ve had surgery and all those same health questions, making me think that I filled that shit out in the waiting room and then they immediately took the form and threw it in the trash. “Fuck this piece of paper,” they say, with vigor and spite. Fine. Whatever. Then we go throughs some new questions, the fun ones about, “So, who in your family is dead now, and what did they die from?” And that’s a fun little litany to recite.
Nurse takes my blood pressure. It’s high. Not like, blood is about to squirt out of my eyes high, but like mid-high, and that’s odd, because my blood pressure is never high. So, that’s noted.
She leaves. Doctor comes in.
Now, my doctor has the bedside manner of a lamp. Some may find this comforting but you can’t joke with him, you’ll learn nothing about him, he knows nothing about you — he is simply present, like if one of those grocery store robots were a doctor.
Oh, also, you also get like, one question. If you go in for WEIRD ELBOW, you talk to him about WEIRD ELBOW and you get the fuck out. Do not ask him about the ODD EAR GURGLE. He does not want to talk about that. You’re signed up for a WEIRD ELBOW session. You got EAR GURGLE, that’s a different appointment, and this train is a-rollin’, pal.
So, he sits down.
And he says
wait for it
wait for it
waaaaaaait for it
“You don’t have to wear that.”
That, meaning, presumably, my mask.
(Better that than, say, my pants. “You don’t have to wear those dungarees,” he says, a coy twinkle in his once-dead eyes.)
I sigh, and explain, well, there’s a lot of sickness going around, and also, I am presently sick.
When I say this, he visibly flinches and asks, with serious panic:
“Do you have COVID?”
And I need you to understand here that in that exact moment I proved undeniably that I have a superpower, and that superpower is unshakeable willpower. Because I really, really wanted to take my mask off and then answer, confidently, “Oh, yeah, it’s COVID.” Just before coughing.
I did not do this, thus confirming I am a good person.
But I mean, what the fuck, they don’t ask before I get there if I had COVID. They don’t supply tests. They just gleefully tell me to take off my mask. I absolutely could’ve had COVID. And given how glibly the entire office treated the situation, I’d think they actually don’t care very much about COVID — or any other illness! — at all.
(Which is why I mask there!)
So, he then asks, and once again, please wait for it, wait for it —
“What medications are you taking?” And then, you know, have I had surgery, who in my family is alive and how did the dead ones die.
At this point I’m fairly convinced that I’m being punked, like this is some kind of joke, right? They all tell me, ha ha, no masks, also, please give us the same information you just gave to the last three people. Is anybody writing this down? Two of the people seem to be tapping it into a fucking iPad, but at this point I’m pretty sure they’re just playing Wordle. There is literally no continuity of information. I sigh, and I tell him the information AGAIN.
So, he says, “You’re still on the lansoprazole.”
Meaning, my heartburn meds. Proton pump inhibitors.
OTC, yes, yep, I take it every day.
Last year, he asked me this question, and I said yes, and he said, “OTC? I’ll give you a prescription for the prescription dose,” which is twice as powerful, I guess, but I said I didn’t need it, and he gave me the prescription anyway. I asked him then, “Well, I hear there are some risks with the PPIs, so I dunno if I should get a bigger dose when arguably I should wean off this one maybe?” And he said those studies aren’t really great, don’t worry, get the prescription, you dolt. So me, the dolt, said fine. (I did get the prescription. I did not take any. I still have the bottle.)
This year, he says, “You should probably try to get off that.”
That, meaning, the thing he wanted me to be on last year at a higher dose.
He says to just take a lesser heartburn med, I say those work but not like the PPIs work, and we’ve had this conversation before, and he’s like, “Well maybe we oughta get you scoped to see what’s going on.” I also explain last year he didn’t seem that concerned and wanted me on a higher dose.
The doc shrugs that off. Like, so what.
Okayyyy. I’m not opposed to changed thinking. Changed thinking is good! But this isn’t presented as changed thinking, it’s just, wild spasms from one direction to the next.
Then: time to address blood pressure. It’s high. I don’t know why it’s high. It’s been low all my life, except when I’m sick. And, during this appointment (and even now, a little), I’m sick, so maybe that? Also… I had COVID over the summer. And COVID seems to be consistent with a risk of triggering a rise in blood pressure after the fact. Doctor waves this off. Says it’s because I’m basically a fat piece of shit. Not his words, precisely, but he said blah blah blah, high BMI, blah blah blah, I could stand to lose 50 (!) lbs. Which, I mean, feels like a big suggestion? “Hey, you should lose 22% of yourself.” I have not been that thin since *checks notes* high school.
“We need to whittle you down to your teenage weight” does not seem like a healthy, or even doable, suggestion.
And then he’s on about cholesterol. “Your cholesterol is high.” I haven’t even tested this year, but it was high last year, and it has been my entire life. Not one test has ever come back without it. It’s familiar. I dunno. We’re Eastern European. Pork fat is in our blood, literally. My grandmother had it, but okay, she cooked everything in lard. My mother had it, but she was thin as a bird and ate very little. Father, yep, sister, yep, cholesterol. We’re just made of the shit. We’re like animated wax figures, except, fatty blood goop. And to be clear, not one of these people ever had a cardiac event. Cancer was what killed them, not cholesterol. But he’s like, “Well, it’s bad and you need to be on a statin.” I tell him everybody I know who went on one did pretty poorly, from mood changes to muscle pains to headaches to diabetes to depression/fatigue — obviously, this is artisanal data (aka anecdotes), but if you Google statins and side effects, holy crap, it’s a lot. A lot of people with a lot of problems. And he’s like, nah that’s fine, it’s rare, you need to be on a statin. It’s familial, I need to be taking the pills. I don’t want to be taking the pills, but no other alternative is on the table, from his view. Okayyyyy.
“You need to get a colonoscopy,” he says.
I tell him, yeah, I know, I’m scheduled for one in a few weeks. “Because you have to get one at this age,” he insists, and here is another dose of irony, because at age 45, 46, and 47, I told him, “They changed the guidelines, I can get a colonoscopy now,” and he said, “no they didn’t, not until 50, sorry,” every fucking time. Now, now he’s like, “WELL YOU BETTER DO IT, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WAITING FOR.”
The appointment is over, then, and I say, with great reluctance, “I think you have to check my prostate.” Which means, y’know, the ol’ wiggly finger test. One of our least most dignified tests during a physical, for either of us. Last year he did it. This year he said, “You’re not at risk until 50.”
And I’m like, motherfucker, you JUST ASKED ME five minutes ago about all the deaths in my family, and I said, as I have said every time, my FATHER died from *does jazz hands* PROSTATE CANCER. Which is why I get the prostate checked. It’s not because I enjoy the experience! It isn’t a treat for me! There’s no romance! No Lindt truffle gently pressed into my mouth! It’s unpleasant for both of us. (Though I note, no joke, I had a doctor many years ago compliment me during the process saying, and I quote, my sphincter had “good snap.” As if it were a bratwurst he was biting into instead of a butthole his finger was plundering. I guess he meant my nether-ring returned to form easily, like a rubber-band? Better that than a blown-out pair of elastic underpants, one supposes.)
Well, no such compliment from this current doctor. I remind him that, hey, hello, my father died not from cholesterol but from eating a big ol’ bowl of Oops, All Prostate Cancer, and he says, crestfallen, “Oh.” Then he thinks about it and you can see the war on his face where he’s deciding if he’s going to glove-up and do the deed. The slot machine in his eyes stops spinning and it lands on, mmm, not today, Satan.
Instead he just says, “We’ll just have the blood test check your PSA numbers, no digital test necessary.”
And so endeth the appointment. Now, I get it, this is far from the worst anyone has experienced — and certainly women get a lot more handily dismissed than I do. (God only knows what trans people have to deal with at the average American doctor; I imagine it is, how you say, unideal.) When I had COVID this past go-round, they gave me Paxlovid fast. My wife got COVID and they told her to eat rocks. I had to call and kick over a bunch of bee-hives telling them they were being sexist by denying her the same medication I was getting, and they finally relented and gave her the drug, too. So, even there, a disparity from the same doctor.
I bring this up because, you know, I find when you have a lack of trust in one doctor, it kind of cascades outward — the doubt, the distrust, it reverberates. It means I’m less interested in going to him for problems, for care, because either I can only bring up the one thing that’s bothering me, or worse, he’s just gonna say “BMI cholesterol” loudly at my broken ankle or my pulsating neck tumor. When I get inconsistent, incomplete, or outright wrong information from a health provider, it dents and dings my overall feelings about healthcare in general — and my feelings about healthcare in general, as a capitalist endeavor driven by money as much as (if not more than) actual health, ain’t great as-is.
It’s not just that they’re wrong sometimes. Science is wrong often! Then we adapt, we course correct, we learn and grow. But healthcare providers seem extra resistant to that growth, to any new thinking, and are still just as happy throwing antibiotics at a clearly viral infection even though it… doesn’t do anything, like teachers who give an excess of homework just because parents demand it, not because it actually improves anything at all. And once you start to doubt the doctor, once you start to doubt why they want to just throw medication at a thing instead of trying to root out a cause or find deeper adjustments, that doubt swells and blooms.
And it becomes much easier to end up in the place where you’re questioning good advice, where you’re doubting settled science, because your doctor — your representative in this strange world! — isn’t someone you trust as easily as you’d like. It’s like holes in rotten wood — spores are going to get in there and grow, and those spores could be stuff like anti-vaxxer nonsense bullshit. Right? We have to be our own advocates in medical spaces, but being our own advocates means… trying to know ourselves but also trying to know more than our own doctors know. Which leads us to potentially harmful sources of information and, of course, as information fidelity online is getting worse and worse (search engine enshittification!), the fidelity of good medical information is worse, too. Made worse, by exploitative actors and by unregulated unfettered capitalism.
Not everyone is well-versed in critically-thinking every problem, and it’s easy to be like, “Well, yeah, my doctor was wrong here, so when they tell me to get vaccinated, I’m like, hey, maybe I should question that a little bit. And then I found one of the Kennedy’s saying that nature is good and vaccines are bad and I agree with the first part and my doctor is a dickhead soooo…”
What I’m suggesting here is that your doctor is your first line of defense against all the bullshit, and all too often, they’re a very, very weak defense. I know friends who had doctors tell them stuff like, “Whoa, don’t get that COVID vaccine, it changes your dang DNA.” Like, no it fucking does not. But there they are. Medical personnel. Saying it. Telling you that, or not to wear a mask, or take these antibiotics for a non-bacterial problem, or, or, or.
It just kinda sucks.
I have no solution here, I have no deeper thoughts, I just want to yell and sigh and grump a bit here. But also I wanted to point out that bad experiences with doctors has a knock-on ripple effect. (And no, I am not an anti-vaxxer, give me the shots, get a mask on my face when needed, and I try to take my health seriously, erm, maybe sometimes too seriously, given that I have hypochondriac obsessiveness at times.)
Again, tl;dr I don’t like my doctor, and I need to find a new one.
Which is a sucky journey, even suckier than like, buying a mattress. And buying a mattress is a journey into Hell.
INTO HELL.
Anyway.
Have a nice day.
Buy my books or I explode, like the bus from Speed.
Austin says:
What the actual fuck. I’m sorry, man. Seems like this, almost exact ridiculousness, is becoming more standard EVERYWHERE in US Healthcare. It’s so fucking hard to stay healthy here. The air sucks. The food is literal trash, the majority of it. And docs like this guy are working to cash our insurance claims and co-pays, and not achieve much else. Definitely find another doc. My father passed because colon cancer was missed when it really, REALLY should have been caught at his regular checks. The hunt for a decent doc sucks, and sometimes (we’re doing this now) your good doc STARTS to suck. God I hate it here. Woo! ‘merica. Sending love. What an infuriating mess.
January 31, 2024 — 11:08 PM
murjanian says:
Oh man, I’m so sorry they treated you that way. And yes, here’s to a new doctor who will be respectful! I also fired my PCP last year and my new doctor is a DO and she’s awesome! Best of luck friend
February 1, 2024 — 5:02 AM
Elizabeth says:
Hope you’re feeling better!
February 1, 2024 — 6:10 AM
D.M. Guay says:
All doctors are not created equal!
I had to learn this the hard way, after I had symptoms of KIDNEY CANCER for FOUR VISITS, including two annual physicals, that were just brushed off. I even went in to see her the day I was diagnosed. And again after I had a nephrectomy, when it had come back stage four, and NONE of those times was cancer screening even considered. THEN, they referred me to the world’s worst oncologist, who just shrugged and said I’d be dead in six months, go home. SHRUGGED. And told me to go home.
Spoiler alert. It’s six years later and I’m still alive and in remission. But if I’d stayed with these two yahoos, I would literally be dead.
So, yeah. All ye who read this. Find good doctors. Someone who pays attention. Someone who LISTENS to you. It’s literally life or death!
February 1, 2024 — 8:51 AM
Patrick says:
What a frustrating visit, man. The whole system has gone to shit for the most part. I’m a doctor (kid’s brains not grown-up’s snappy sphincters thankfully) but I have a post “Why my patients (parents) kinda suck” that’s in the works. It helps to have a doctor who actually cares about you, doesn’t just go through the motions, summarily dismissing all your concerns and opinions. Yeah. Maybe the dude’s schedule is overbooked by administration trying to ram as many RVUs (relative value units) into every day, week, month, year until any real joy or delight he once (hopefully) experienced caring for actual human beings is now (for him) tedious mini-battles with fiction writers who think they went to med school (doctors are prideful know-it-alls mostly, Google, now AI may topple what’s left of our fragile egos). Here’s a confession. I made it through med school without sticking my finger into a single butthole—except for the traveling troup we learned on—the same way I managed to avoid the hitting drills in 8th grade football practice. This guy probably doesn’t enjoy lubing up the ol’ gloved digit, but yeah, he signed up for the gig. And with your family history, he should get in there.
There definitely can be this adversarial relationship which is as much fun as a prostate check. You walk out thinking, man, this guy sucks and he leaves the room thinking, wow, that guy sucks—why do I this shit for a living…if only I’d tried to write after college instead of med school. Wait. I’m projecting now.
I have a doctors appointment tomorrow with a new internist. I’m dreading it.
February 1, 2024 — 9:28 AM
Melanie says:
Thanks for the humor you bring to what is just one of the many horror stories I’ve heard. Thankfully, I’ve not had an encounter this bad. I did have a physician (happened to be male) who asked about my children every year. I do not have any children—never did. I finally bit the bullet and found a new doc – chose a female, on purpose (disclaimer: I am female.), and at my very fist visit, tested her for willingness to actually converse. She passed, and she’s been great. In fact, she saved my life (no kidding) when she found a lump in my breast, during my routine yearly physical, that turned out to be an aggressive type of breast cancer. I suggest you try the “willing to converse” test, or maybe hang around outside the office of a potential candidate and do an exit poll of current patients.
February 1, 2024 — 9:32 AM
Kat says:
Completely anecdotal, but my healthcare experience has wildly improved since I’ve been seeing NPs and DNPs as my Primary Care Physicians. I was not wild about it at first, but my insurance allowed it and they were the only folks taking new patients when I moved. It turns out, it was the BEST move ever for my care. The three I have now seen over the last 13 years (switches due to retirements and them moving) have all been empathetic, active listeners, and holistic in their approach to care. They have also been SUPER willing to refer me out for tests and to specialists. I don’t know if it’s their training or if maybe they are less overwhelmed by their patient load (the huge medical care staff shortage where I live in rural America is A Thing), but I don’t see myself ever going back to the MD or DO PCP route.
February 1, 2024 — 10:11 AM
Ellen says:
Try being not just a woman but a MENOPAUSAL woman in this deranged system. It’s a shitshow within a circus within a psych ward. You get all the baked-in dismissal from being a female along with the ageism that comes with being *ahem* “of a certain age” and the gaslighting from having bonkers symptoms that are the direct result of EVERY ORGAN IN YOUR BODY WITHDRAWING FROM A VITAL HORMONE THAT IS NOW DEPLETED, thank you very much. No one listens to you, believes you, or gives you any help at all because once a very long time ago some dipshits designed a very poor study (the Women’s Health Initiative) and the media latched onto one meager data point and wrote a bunch of clickbait (before there ever was a thing) to drive ratings and eyeballs, and now you’re lucky if you get put on antidepressants (cuz, you know, anytime a woman complains about her health, it’s because she’s depressed), never mind given any actual real doctoring.
You basically have to get your own MD from Dr. Google U to survive medical care in America. Oh, and win the lottery.
February 1, 2024 — 10:43 AM
Kathleen says:
Chuck, YES, you need to find a new doctor. YES, that search sucks. All the paperwork before you even get to meet a new doctor, YES, it sucks. HOWEVER, you seem to be doing a pretty good job of being your own health advocate. I mean, you’ve identified the “issues” with your current doc. You’ve identified the hell out of those issues, year upon year. There is one more step in advocating for yourself: when you’ve identified issues that make you uncomfortable, scared even, angry, frustrated… Chuck, the next step is to LEAVE. Basically, you’re describing an abusive relationship. You’re paying a guy to undermine your confidence, ignore your concerns, and denigrate your (rational, family-history-justified) fears. Cancer survivor here, multiple chronic blah de blah stuff survivor here, I’ve had lots of doctors past and present, advising you to LEAVE. Some doctors are worse than your doctor. Many are much, much better, and you need to find one of those. When you find a doctor who listens to you and acts like a partner to your advocacy, Chuck, peace washes over you and you can put all that energy you now spend barricading yourself against the insult that is your current doctor–worrying about what he might be missing, wondering if that is your fault–take that wasted energy and pour it into a new book. Maybe a really good horror tale, something with a bad doctor in it.
February 1, 2024 — 11:00 AM
Kristie says:
This reads like my own experiences 1000%. I haven’t been to a doctor in 15 years without my own, CORRECT mind you, diagnosis in hand when I get there. There is very little care in health care, even less follow-through, and exactly zero professional or scientific curiosity about actually finding an answer when the obvious is not it. Getting someone to order even an X-ray is a galling, totally unnecessary fight. It’s terrifying, because what am I going to do if/when some day I’m really, seriously ill?
February 1, 2024 — 11:01 AM
Allison Thurman says:
You SHOULD be able to get both at once but some insurances won’t permit it. Anecdotes !=data but this happened to a relative of mine.
February 1, 2024 — 12:36 PM
Jordan says:
THIS is the answer. The MDs just want to get in the room, prescribe a few meds, maybe order some tests, and get out. The NPs and MAs actually take the time to spend with you. I work for a hospital system and when my patients complain about their MDs, I always recommend they see the MA or NP because they have the time to spend with you.
The mask thing, though, kills me. My doctor’s office is the same. “You don’t have to wear that.” Thanks, but I will. I had COVID recently and tested positive for 15 days. I was supposed to visit my parents who are in their mid-70’s. My PCP basically said to ignore all CDC recommendations, and said, “sure, get on that plane filled with hundreds of people and recirculating air, and then go visit your mom with Parkinsons and your dad with a chronic (but not active) cancer, even though multiple tests keep coming back positive.” Ignored that advice and stayed home. I think I’m going to be looking for a new doc as well.
February 1, 2024 — 1:06 PM
Cathy says:
That sucks! So sorry. I’m pretty good with my current doctor but I’ve had a few WTFs. One is a lump in my side – we checked it out for breast cancer & lymph node (nope!) But when I asked the tech what it was then, she said it’s a muscle thing. Then my doctor doesn’t pursue it more. This is the year to go back for it. At least I don’t have my friend’s doctor who prescribed dewormer for COVID because it was safer than Paxlovid. TBH my friend probably agreed. Ugh. At least he has no worms.
February 1, 2024 — 1:11 PM
Janet Alcorn says:
Ugh, I’m so sorry you had to deal with this. And you’re exactly right: crappy experiences with doctors fuel distrust and misinformation. I hope you find an excellent new doctor who takes you seriously and treats you well.
February 1, 2024 — 1:19 PM
Tim Pratt says:
Oof yeah that dude sucks. Shop around for someone better for sure. When I’m done with whatever my problem of the day is my GP says “Okay, tell me everything else medical that remotely occurs to you so you don’t have to come in later and do another copay.” And he never tells me to lose weight (the secret there is, when I first started seeing him I weighed 260, so getting down to 220 a couple years later was like confetti cannons time; you just gotta set the right baseline).
Though he did put me on cholesterol meds a couple years back because things were starting to trend bad, and he said because I was “approaching 50” he wanted to be preventative and I was like “motherfucker I am FORTY-FIVE”
February 1, 2024 — 2:04 PM
Jeremiah Kristal says:
Time to find a new Doctor. If you went to a restaurant and they took your order and then served you something completely different, you would complain and demand an explanation.
Sure, they could say that the liver & onions they served you was prepared by a brilliant chef, but it’s not what you ordered, and not what you like, so they lose your business.
Yes, it’s a pain to change Doctors, and there are certainly shortages of providers, but that office sounds terrible.
(Been trying to diagnose an issue where I get hypoglycemia and so have seen several docs recently, every one goes over the notes from the other Docs before anything else, and make sure the info is correct, then we start looking for causes & treatment.)
February 1, 2024 — 2:39 PM
Barrie A says:
This is my life. I’ve had these experiences. My doctor kinda sucks, too, and she’s the best I have been able to find.
I feel for you. And for all of us putting up with this sh*te.
February 1, 2024 — 3:09 PM
Scott says:
Good luck, I’ve been on a similar journey of terrible doctors since 2022 and let me just say that I got so frustrated with being told “you look fine, eat more fiber…” that I stopped making follow up appointments and not one of them called me since I gave up on Summit Medical Group early last year.
February 1, 2024 — 3:10 PM
Lauralynn Elliott says:
I have diabetes, and I felt like my doctor was like “Oh well, you’re getting older so it will get worse”. He almost said it that way. I switched to the nurse practitioner in the same office, and she said “You’re too young to just give up on getting control of this.” She CARED. She was so much better than the doctor. If you’re unhappy with your current doctor, you shouldn’t have to deal with it. Get a new one! Or a nurse practitioner, because they are usually more sympathetic. And they listen!
February 1, 2024 — 3:19 PM
bethanyfine says:
Set up interviews to select your next doctor. Explain your concerns and your desire to find someone compatible with your viewpoints but who will also also call you on your bullshit, too. It’s like a first date, but that shouldn’t be the initial “establishment of care” appointment. A doctor should be willing to have this exploratory meeting ahead of time (says the person who went through this process to select a doc from a very limited pool in a tiny string of towns).
February 1, 2024 — 5:37 PM
Virginia S Perry says:
Just a suggestion – As a professional female who got dismissed by doctors too often (and then had a frigging stroke), I now highly recommend female doctors, nurse practitioners, and foreign female health providers. All three types are much better at listening, much better at taking you as a whole, and less likely to parrot platitudes. I think it comes from being dismissed themselves so often.
I don’t know any way around the constant repetition of medical facts, but my current doctor (female, Pakistani) said that the online forms were for one purpose (and she couldn’t even access the answers I put in there), the paper forms were for insurance, and the ipad/laptop answers were for the medical staff in that office. She then rolled her eyes, which endeared her to me.
But we are down in Georgia, so you’ll have to find someone up in your area. You might have your wife find one she likes, then tailgate on that.
February 1, 2024 — 6:57 PM
Jim M says:
Completely anecdotal here, but find a doctor who’s never on time for their appointments. In my case, it means that the doctor is giving every patient the time they need.
February 1, 2024 — 9:38 PM
Bruce Arthurs says:
You wrote: “I had a doctor many years ago compliment me during the process saying, and I quote, my sphincter had ‘good snap.'”
At my own most recent colonoscopy, the doctor commented “You have a nice colon.” Which, like, I don’t get compliments often enough to turn one down, but praise for that in particular was unexpected.
February 2, 2024 — 12:32 AM
Pudden Tane says:
Get rid of this bitch. Funny story…but get rid of this bitch.
Wouldn’t be a guy with the same surname as a UK expletive Darryl Hammond, as Sean Connery, used to call Will Farrell, as Alex Trebec, on SNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy, would it? Begins with a P and ends with an E.
Because it sounds JUST. Like. Him.
February 2, 2024 — 3:20 AM
S C Gregory says:
I’m from the UK and it’s just the same s**t, different day scenario here!! I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I’m far too young to have all these health problems, like I went to the local sickness shop and put in a bulk order or something. Or perhaps I enjoy being in constant pain and not sleeping more than 3hrs a night. It makes me wonder if my doctors got their medical degree in a Happy Meal. Yet, we’re supposed to trust them because they are the professionals. You’re not allowed to question them. Or they ask you what you think is wrong and if you give an answer be prepared for the medical gaslighting to begin. Honestly, it can make you lose the will to live. But, I’ll keep going, if only out of spite 😉
February 2, 2024 — 4:58 AM
janinmi says:
In your search for a new medical practitioner, talk to local friends and acquaintances, that’s my recommendation. I found my current doc years ago on the advice of my then acupuncturist (who helped me a lot) who advised that I seek an internist, which I did. Scored with the first one I went to. He’s younger than me (I’m a senior), has a sense of humor, appreciates that I educate myself on my medical problems, answers my questions, treats me like a human being and doesn’t consider himself a god. I learned to schedule my appointments with him at the end of his day if I had things I needed to discuss, so neither of us felt rushed. I’ve even loaned him a book or two, as he’s done for me. I wish you all success in finding a practitioner as good or better. May you be well soon.
February 2, 2024 — 3:21 PM
Cheryl says:
Ha. Ok, I get you! I had to work through Covid 2020. And 2021. An 2022. Etc. That’s NZ Kiwifruit export. All the masks, sanitisers (NZ English here). Now we have the 5th wave. I’ve always refuse to sit in a toilet cubicle at work that hasn’t been sanitised cleaned. This was because our cleaner was a union member and no-one had the balls initially to confront the issue. Because of pressure of workers, this issue has escalated to a health and safety issue. I have freaking-well taken my concern to our Health and Safety Officer. I told him that unless I’m busting to go (urinate) at work, I wait until I go home. If I get a kidney disease, I’ll refer it back to my work place. I’ve said this a few time. Union said it was a workplace issue. After many meetings, cleaner resigned
February 6, 2024 — 3:28 AM
Deborah Makarios says:
Sounds to me like your doctor is identical twins trying to cover up the fact that they only did half of med school each.
I had a doctor whose standard response was “come back in two weeks if it’s still a problem” – usually after I’d already waited a couple of weeks to make sure it was genuinely A Thing. (Except the one time she sent me straight to the hospital for a scan and they declined it, waited four hours, sent me home, and told me to come back if the agony returned for a third bout. Still don’t know what that was. On the plus side, being NZ, I didn’t have to pay for taking up space in the ED, just for the Dr appt.)
February 7, 2024 — 9:22 PM
Laura says:
It’s horrible out there right now in terms of medical care. I’m convinced too many healthcare professionals became way too overwhelmed with the REALNESS of the pandemic and even seeing a mask or talking about vaccines is a trigger for them. I got Covid for the first time in August and my husband and I both were told to take NyQuil and mucinex. We only got paxlovid because I found an online medical group that would prescribe over telehealth appointment. Then when one month later husband had a stroke scare (something folks are at higher risk for after Covid according to multiple sources including the freaking American Heart Association) and it turned out it was a blood sugar related issue (also a complication after covid!) we were told by doctors and nurses it was because of the Covid vaccines. Not having recently had Covid. Nope. The vaccines we hadn’t had a booster for in 6 months (my case) or longer (husband’s). Needless to say. I’m looking for a new pcp as well. Ours sucks. Thank you for giving voice to this.
February 14, 2024 — 9:19 PM
Betsy DuBard says:
I’m so sorry. And I know it’s a pain in the butt to change docs, but ask around and find someone better. Also, I too had to fight tooth and nail to get Paxlovid, had to go get blood tests to check my liver and kidney function when I did not feel like going for bloodwork, and also I was contagious. With Covid. No one told me to lose the mask, though.
February 15, 2024 — 2:40 PM