Day 1: I tried to pretend it was only an ear ache, and that with some tender love and care it would go away.
Day 2: My middle ear was now swollen to the point that I could only hear muffled noises out of my left ear. If I was daring enough to endure the pain to open my jaw wide enough to shove in some food, all sound was lost as I crunched on my cereal. Time to see a Dr.
Following the slightly insulting comments of “must be pretty bad if you came to a Dr. for an ear ache”, the nurse took my temperature. Her awesome comments continued when she informed me that my temp was 99.5, “indicating that there really was something going on”, “not to say we didn’t believe you”. Good to know they were expecting a lying hypochondriac. A good 10 minutes after the nurse left the Dr. came in prepared for a weight loss program speech since the nurse had added an extra 100 lbs to my chart. Awesome attention to details. After some obligatory chatting the Dr. shoved something in my ear already sensitive ear, and jostled it around to the point that my left eye was watering uncontrollably. As if the first time wasn't bad enough, after a little diagnosis chatter she decided she needed another look. Yes, indeed it hurt worse the second time, but thanks for the extra effort.
Since I am now the proud owner of an HSA insurance plan (aka, I pay every dime until I hit my premium of $1400) after she recited the "tests" she wanted to run on me I asked her how much they cost. I could hear the thought-hamster-wheel loud and clear. Post "ums", "uhs" and blank stares she finally admitted she had no clue how much they cost. I didn't care too much that she was ignorant of the cost she imposes on the patient, so as she climbed onto her "I’m a conservative" soap box and explained to me the "problems with health care", my admiration for the view from the 25th floor grew. Her mentioning of the disconnect between Dr.'s, Pharmaceutical companies and patients didn’t help the fact that, as a Dr. with no concept of how much medical tests cost, she was only contributing to the problem. I opted to hold off on the blood draws.
At this point she wrote a prescription down on my trusty chart and walked out of the room. She returned a good 10 minutes later to inform me she had done some research to find out the price of the tests. Super, couldn’t you have done that on your own time, instead of mine? She then told me she was going to “write up the prescription”. Surely this should have taken 30 seconds while she scribbled it on a little pad and sent me off on my now in more pain way. No no, not at this state of the art office. I had originally appreciated the fact that this office was predominantly electronic, but when it took them 15 minutes to type up my Rx, and print it out my appreciation for the technological efforts had faded.
When I originally scheduled the appointment I was asked, if I'd be making this Dr. my primary care physician. Odd question to ask of someone who hasn't even met the Dr., but I said yes to move on with the appointment set up. I suppose they gave it their all, but after an hour plus long appointment that resulted in my left ear becoming numb to deal with the pain from the assault/inspection I have a funny feeling I won’t be returning any time soon.
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