It's Laugh or Cry
My primary care doctor passed away last week--it's just been that kind of June, I guess, though he's been declining for months, which is how I ended up going to urgent care clinics a few times instead and getting seen by quacks--so I had to scramble to get someone to give me a referral for a mammo screening--somehow me being over 40, having Medicare, and having two prior breast surgeries at that very same hospital weren't enough--and refill my prescription for Crestor. My electronic records from Dr. Z were automatically sent to a doctor who used to also work out of his office years ago, so Dr. C saw me a few times maybe ten years ago. I had to refresh his memory. It's always a gas explaining my Chiari, brain surgery, EDS, and ongoing issues to someone unfamiliar with my history, and I actually forget how insane it sounds to someone who hasn't lived through it. He actually laughed once at a point in my verbal parade of wtf medical dysfunction and apologized for it, but I told him it was okay since I talk about a lot of it semi-humorously since I've been in an "better to laugh than cry" state over it myself.
Since I was there anyway, I had him look at my ankle too, which hadn't been injured when I'd made my appointment for this last week. I told him that my ankles had sprained and rolled so many times that I didn't even remember how many times anymore and that it's a problem for someone with weak joints and vestibular issues. His response was to ask if I'd considered using a four-legged walker, since I might fall less and people might be more understanding if I were visibly disabled. (I know from experience with crutches and a cane that understanding isn't guaranteed.) I told him I actually already owned one since the hospital gave it to me after my brain surgery since they didn't know if I'd be able to walk okay afterward. (It's in my room and I hang stuff on it. Waste not, want not.) I said my physical therapist thought that it was better I didn't use a cane or walker since it was asking for my physical condition to weaken. Also, that the walker weighs and my shoulders are too screwed up to carry it, like, upstairs for too long if I'd have to. Besides, prior to injuring my left ankle in May, I'd gone two years without! At which point he was like "don't jinx yourself!"
He only has office hours in my area for one day, one morning, and one afternoon a week, which I told him would be a problem if I needed a doctor any of the many other times of the week. He told me I could go to urgent care, which was when I told him how an urgent care clinic mistook a cyst for a bacterial infection and put me on medications to get rid of a bacterial infection that led to me going to the ER with complications. For medications that never would have fixed the painful problem I'd gone to the doctor for. His reaction was basically "oh, damn." But since Dr. Z has passed, leaving many patients without a primary care doctor, he says he might expand office hours.
So why don't I just find another primary care--not urgent care--doctor? Because finding someone who takes Medicare as a primary with Medicaid as a secondary is more difficult than you might think.
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Since I was there anyway, I had him look at my ankle too, which hadn't been injured when I'd made my appointment for this last week. I told him that my ankles had sprained and rolled so many times that I didn't even remember how many times anymore and that it's a problem for someone with weak joints and vestibular issues. His response was to ask if I'd considered using a four-legged walker, since I might fall less and people might be more understanding if I were visibly disabled. (I know from experience with crutches and a cane that understanding isn't guaranteed.) I told him I actually already owned one since the hospital gave it to me after my brain surgery since they didn't know if I'd be able to walk okay afterward. (It's in my room and I hang stuff on it. Waste not, want not.) I said my physical therapist thought that it was better I didn't use a cane or walker since it was asking for my physical condition to weaken. Also, that the walker weighs and my shoulders are too screwed up to carry it, like, upstairs for too long if I'd have to. Besides, prior to injuring my left ankle in May, I'd gone two years without! At which point he was like "don't jinx yourself!"
He only has office hours in my area for one day, one morning, and one afternoon a week, which I told him would be a problem if I needed a doctor any of the many other times of the week. He told me I could go to urgent care, which was when I told him how an urgent care clinic mistook a cyst for a bacterial infection and put me on medications to get rid of a bacterial infection that led to me going to the ER with complications. For medications that never would have fixed the painful problem I'd gone to the doctor for. His reaction was basically "oh, damn." But since Dr. Z has passed, leaving many patients without a primary care doctor, he says he might expand office hours.
So why don't I just find another primary care--not urgent care--doctor? Because finding someone who takes Medicare as a primary with Medicaid as a secondary is more difficult than you might think.
You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost.
comments at Dreamwidth.