Diabetes Appointment Woes
Today has been one of the most annoying, frustrating days of medical treatment that I've had in a long, long time.
I was scheduled today to have my first in-person appointment with my specialist at the Diabetes Centre here in Ottawa at the Riverside Hospital in several years. While I've had several virtual appointments with the doctor since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was going to be my first in-person appointment in a long time. And I needed it. The doctor changed my medication some ten months ago, and I've had some...problems...over that time, not to mention my diabetes is somewhat now out of control. So when this appointment was scheduled, I made damn sure to insist that the doctor see me in person at the hospital. Things didn't work out that way.
I arrived at the Riverside Hospital and proceeded up to the Diabetes Clinic on the 4th floor, and went to check in. The receptionist looked up the appointment, and told me that I'd made a mistake coming to the clinic, as it was supposed to be a virtual appointment again. I explained the situation and told her that the doctor's own receptionist and nurse had assured me the appointment would be in person, and added that I had confirmed the status of the appointment the week before (just to be on the safe side). She excused herself and went to check on matters, and returned about 10 minutes later and told me that I was right - the appointment was meant to be an in-person one. But because of the hectic mess of the medical system in Ontario right now, the clinic hadn't been able to give the doctor any office room for the present time, so the appointment was returned to a virtual status...without having let me know at all! They managed to assign one of the consultation rooms to me, where the doctor would call from home in another virtual appointment by phone! Needless to say, I was very unhappy but calmed down enough to make do with what I had at hand. While the virtual call with the doctor accomplished pretty much nothing, as per usual, the nurse at the clinic did weigh me and took my blood pressure, so at least something was accomplished.
The really bad news was that the blood blister on the bottom of my left foot started to bleed, though I didn't notice it at the time. What blood blister, you ask? Well, when I went for footcare last, I wrote a post about the footcare woes I had with the new clinician. What I didn't mention at that time or since is that three days after footcare, I developed a blood blister on the bottom of the left foot due to the fact that the new clinician didn't reduce the calluses enough on the bottom of the foot, causing the blister to develop due to a lot of walking over those few days. Because I was walking mostly on the left foot after the foot clinician cut me three times on the right foot! I've been dealing with it quietly, or at least trying to, since then, and when I went for the appointment at the Diabetes Clinic, the callus started to bleed. I did mention this to the doctor, and he told me that he'd set up an appointment at the clinic at the General Hospital to have that treated properly.
To make matters worse, the trip to the Diabetes Clinic cost me roughly $52.00 total by taxi. All for an appointment that was supposed to be in person but ended up virtual on the phone again!
What a fiasco today has been!
I was scheduled today to have my first in-person appointment with my specialist at the Diabetes Centre here in Ottawa at the Riverside Hospital in several years. While I've had several virtual appointments with the doctor since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was going to be my first in-person appointment in a long time. And I needed it. The doctor changed my medication some ten months ago, and I've had some...problems...over that time, not to mention my diabetes is somewhat now out of control. So when this appointment was scheduled, I made damn sure to insist that the doctor see me in person at the hospital. Things didn't work out that way.
I arrived at the Riverside Hospital and proceeded up to the Diabetes Clinic on the 4th floor, and went to check in. The receptionist looked up the appointment, and told me that I'd made a mistake coming to the clinic, as it was supposed to be a virtual appointment again. I explained the situation and told her that the doctor's own receptionist and nurse had assured me the appointment would be in person, and added that I had confirmed the status of the appointment the week before (just to be on the safe side). She excused herself and went to check on matters, and returned about 10 minutes later and told me that I was right - the appointment was meant to be an in-person one. But because of the hectic mess of the medical system in Ontario right now, the clinic hadn't been able to give the doctor any office room for the present time, so the appointment was returned to a virtual status...without having let me know at all! They managed to assign one of the consultation rooms to me, where the doctor would call from home in another virtual appointment by phone! Needless to say, I was very unhappy but calmed down enough to make do with what I had at hand. While the virtual call with the doctor accomplished pretty much nothing, as per usual, the nurse at the clinic did weigh me and took my blood pressure, so at least something was accomplished.
The really bad news was that the blood blister on the bottom of my left foot started to bleed, though I didn't notice it at the time. What blood blister, you ask? Well, when I went for footcare last, I wrote a post about the footcare woes I had with the new clinician. What I didn't mention at that time or since is that three days after footcare, I developed a blood blister on the bottom of the left foot due to the fact that the new clinician didn't reduce the calluses enough on the bottom of the foot, causing the blister to develop due to a lot of walking over those few days. Because I was walking mostly on the left foot after the foot clinician cut me three times on the right foot! I've been dealing with it quietly, or at least trying to, since then, and when I went for the appointment at the Diabetes Clinic, the callus started to bleed. I did mention this to the doctor, and he told me that he'd set up an appointment at the clinic at the General Hospital to have that treated properly.
To make matters worse, the trip to the Diabetes Clinic cost me roughly $52.00 total by taxi. All for an appointment that was supposed to be in person but ended up virtual on the phone again!
What a fiasco today has been!