May 17, 2006

• Assholes & Procedures

  So I went to my appointment this morning for the EGD (panendoscopy), this wasn’t the procedure itself but the initial visit with the doctor.  However, this doctor must have been absent the day of the class for “bedside manners” was held in med school because he was rude as all hell!  Now, normally I’m not one to call people names, well, not to their face anyway…but I am one to call it like I see it.  This guy…was an asshole!

  
  

  After he called me back, we went and sat in his office to talk.  I had paperwork that the lady at the front desk had given me to complete, so while he asked me questions about my medical history I worked on the forms.  It started off pretty normal discussing my current medications and health conditions etc.  But then…he started asking me about the heartburn and acid reflux…this I expected, except that when I tried to tell him that I was on Nexeum for this in 2001-2002…he interrupted me and said, “so you’ve had this problem for about 2-3 years now…“.  How do you get 2-3yrs from 2001-2002?  I said, “no…more like 4-5yrs“. 

  
  

  He says, ” I see…so yes, go on…you were on Nexeum and…”. So I explained that I’d had adverse affects while on this drug and that it had caused my food to not digest properly and again he interrupted me with, “so you had diarrhea…I see..”.  So again I said, “no…well, yes sometimes but my food wasn’t digesting properly…i.e. it came out looking the same way it did going in“.

  
  

  He then looks at me and says, “no, no, no…your food digested just fine…I mean…look at you.  You couldn’t possibly be the size that you are if your food didn’t digest properly.”  

  
  

  Oh yes…he did…he went there!

  
  

  For a moment I thought, what the hell did he just say to me?  no…he couldn’t have said THAT…did he? But then I realized, oh yes…he did.  So I looked at him and said, “Excuse me…but what does your opinion of my size have to do with the facts relating to an adverse affect from a medication that I’d had a few years ago?  I don’t think that we should be concentrating on your opinion of my “size” or my personal life…I think maybe you should stick to your specialty…you know, what I’m here for? Yeah, the whole assessing me for damage caused by acid reflux and stomach ulcers.  Okay?”

  
  

  No comment from him…he just began his dictation into his voice recorder of my medical history and such.  So I figured that this part of the conversation was over and that we would just move on.  I was wrong.

  
  

  He took me into the examining room and took my blood pressure and listened to my lungs briefly.  He then examined my belly…just some poking around to see if I may have a hernia or related issue.  While doing this he says, “so you just have one child?“…and I thought where the hell did he get that? oh…because I told him I’d had a c-section…  I said, “no…actually I have 4 kids“.  He then says, “oh…are you married?“…like it was a shocking thought or something.  So I told him that yes I am married and he procedes to ask me if my husband is supportive of the wls and all and told him that yes he is and he’s wonderful.  He seemed a bit shocked by that as well but I let it go.

  
  

  He then took me over to scheduling while announcing to me that “appointments fill up very quickly and it may take some time to get in for the EGD“.  The scheduling lady interjects with, “actually doctor, you have an opening on Friday morning due to a cancellation“.  Gee, I can’t imagine any reason why someone would cancel an appointment with this man could you?

  
  

  I said to her, “perfect…I’ll take it!“.  He then tells me that she’ll get me all set up and he’ll see me Friday morning and then walks away.  I then ask this woman if he’s always this “sweet” to his patients or if I’m just special.  She smiled and said, “he’s something else, but he’s a good doctor…he knows what he’s doing...”. 

  
  

  I said, “that’s good, because I really didn’t want to have to hurt him before leaving your office today” and smiled.  She laughed.

  
  

  Ya know, some people just shouldn’t work with other people and this guy is definitely one of those people!

  
  

  So, I’m hoping that my pulmonary exam later today goes a bit better than this appointment did.  Maybe this doctor was in attendance for the “bedside manners” class in med school.  Hey, one can hope right?

  
  

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  P.S. ~ why is it when I try to insert one of my smilies…I get something entirely different from that of which I just picked??  Xanga is having some issues still eh?

  • 2:33 pm
  • 6 Comments