Scheduling an Appointment

Rita:  Hello, I need to schedule an appointment to see my doctor.

Scheduler: Okay, why?

Rita:  I provide a brief explanation. (Symptoms could be benign, but according to a kind-hearted blogging clinician I queried, could also indicate that one is teetering on the verge of 'crash and burn'. Consult a doctor for medical advice.)

Scheduler:  You can have first available... 28 days from now.

Rita:  Ah, I've been advised that I should see someone soon.

Scheduler:  Okay, you can see one of our residents in 15 days...

I take the 28 day appointment with my primary care physician; then hang up and try to decide what to do.  Symptoms have resolved so a trip to the ED seems a bit over the top.  In view of potential for "crash and burn" 28 days seems to yawn into forever.

I don't want to be a hypochondriac, neither do I want to give up blogging (not to mention life) prematurely.  Hmm.

I send an email to my PCP, apologize for bothering her, and briefly explain symptoms and appointment date.

Within five minutes she is on the phone - I'm very impressed!   (I am also momentarily convinced that her rapid response means that a Code Blue Team is about to rush into my office pushing a crash cart and waving wickedly large needles.)

She tells me that she happened to be online when my message came through.  Okay.  No Code Team is on the way; this is good. 

PCP advises me to call the office and ask to speak to the nurse, who will arrange for one of the group to see me in the next day or two.  In the meantime if symptoms reappear, go to the ED.

I went, had a few tests, early results all look good.  Just one of those "things" apparently.  I feel better knowing I'm not ignoring something scary.

So here's the "public service announcement" portion of this post.  When you or someone you love is the patient - be an advocate, keep asking until you get an answer you can live with.  Better to be thought a hypochondriac (which by the way is defined as "the persistent conviction that one is or is likely to become ill... despite reassurance and medical evidence to the contrary) than to have a somber physician tell you they might have been able to help if only you'd come in sooner.

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I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing. - Agatha Christie

Comments

[prakash]

A highly amusing read. Strangely this comes at a time when our company http://www.binaryspectrum.com has developed a similar concept where a patient can log on to a portal and make an appointment with his or her doctor, We even added a feature where chatting with the doctor is possible.