Tribulations of a Doctor’s Visit

Okay make that nurse practitioner (and have you ever noticed that when you can’t spell a word, people tell you to look it up in the dictionary. If I could look it up in the dictionary, I wouldn’t need to know how to spell now would I?), and you have blog fodder. Blog fodder, blog fodder, my mother loves blog fodder. All together now….

Some background is in order here. I had been seeing Dr. Pibb since 1989. That’s a long time, but about 3 years ago, I couldn’t get into see him so set up an appointment with Dr. Ebie, his associate. As much as I like Pibb, I really liked Ebie. She got right to the point of things and really let you have it, while still having excellent ‘bedside’ manners. When I decided to quit smoking she became my cheerleading section. She prescribed an antidepressant, which I ended up not taking, and offered all kinds of unique methods for quitting (i.e. hypnosis, we would kid around about whether or not they could make you clean house cheerfully). But when I called to set up an appointment yesterday, I learned that she was no longer with the clinic. It was with some trepidation that I set one up with Dr. Pibb's nurse practitioner, but everyone has to start somewhere.

I have a sinus infection, but if the swollen glands are not gone in ten days, make sure I go back. You think????? Anyway back to seeing the nurse practitioner, it started out like most clinical visits, ears, eyes, throat. Definitely had an infection of some kind and NP was ‘pretty’ sure it was sinus related. Now on to reason #2 to go in: losing weight. I have always had a problem controlling my weight and the last 20 years or so haven’t helped any. I have bronchial asthma so periodically I would be put on steroids to help control it. You know, if you are prone to be overweight, steroids don’t help any. Still I have always felt it was something that I needed to work on and I use to when I was much younger.

I have a wonderful diet program that I can record everything I eat into (just have to get started using it again). But back to talking to NP; I explained that while I still watched what I ate, I was finding it difficult to get the exercise recommended since I was chasing a 2 year old around all the time, as well as not being able to get a good night’s sleep. Now it is important that you remember what I just said so that you can get the full impact of what came next.

NP tells me, that while she is not belittling what I have already told her, to loose the weight, I need to eat less, exercise more and get a good night’s sleep. DUH! In lieu of a good night’s sleep take a nap when Indiana takes a nap. Nap? Indiana take a NAP? What, are you kidding? The child hasn’t taken a nap in a year and he is two years old.

The next words out of her mouth were, “I really hate to suggest or prescribe anything, because both the over the counter and behind the counter drugs have some really bad side effects, but if you are still have problems after the first of the year, please come back because a pharmaceutical company is suppose to be coming out with one that didn’t have the serious side effects of those currently available.” I could live with that. That was all she had to tell me, maybe even given me a little encouragement to go along with it. Instead I was told that it was far better to be seriously overweight than to be smoking. I wonder if she will same the thing when I keel over with a fat induced heart attack. I am still reserving judgment as to whether I will see her again. She is new at this after all.

To be honest though, I don’t think all of that would have bothered me if I did not have to put up with the pharmacy next. I take my prescription for the antibiotic and the decongestant up to have it filled. “Excuse me Joyce, have you ever had a prescription filled here before?” Yes, of course, I, wait my name is Tink. “Not according to the prescription.” Can you just call the clinic and verify that it is for me? “No ma’am, we can’t.” I’m starting to get P…furious. I walk away and call the clinic, explain what had happened and asked if I need to bring the script back in. “Oh no ma’am, we’ll call it in right away.” And they did. But no one in the pharmacy was picking up the phone. I was going to ask how long it would take for the prescription to be filled but by that time they had a line 6 deep waiting to TURN in their prescriptions.

So I just go home after buying Indiana (who has been excellent throughout all of this) a turtle car, some new bottles he decided he had to have and some candy. I get home around 11 a.m. Although I wait until 1:30 p.m. to call the pharmacy to check on the status my prescriptions. Yes they had them, they got them that morning, i.e. before noon. When should I consider picking them up. “They will be ready in an hour and a half.” Notice they have already had the prescriptions for over an hour at least. But, hey, okay. 3 p.m., I leave to go get them, but stopped at the bank to make a deposit first, so by the time I get to the pharmacy, it is 3:10 to 3:15 p.m. The prescription is not ready. It will be just a minute. 3:45 p.m., oops, they put the wrong doctor’s name on the label, and have to redo the label. I finally walked out with two prescriptions and a dvd for Indiana at 4:01 p.m.

I’m looking for a new pharmacist. Any suggestions?