An Apple a Day...

Let's for a moment talk about bad doctors.
Because they are out there.

And this week I went to one.

I have been very lucky in my life to, for the most part, have had very good doctors.

There have, of course, been a smattering that were not so great, but this one the other day takes
the cake.

She is not my usual internist, she is filling in for my doc who is on maternity leave. 
Normally, i would just have waited for my regular doc to come back from her leave, but I wanted to talk to someone about my anemia and come up with an action plan.

Right from the start, this new doc seemed to not really be sure what was going on.  She spent more time hunched over her computer screen than she did talking to me.

She looked at my blood work results, barely asking me any questions.

She then kindly suggested that my anemia could be caused either by dietary insufficiency, or by internal bleeding.

Yup, that's right, internal bleeding.  She then asked me if there was a history of colon cancer in my family.

She then went out of the room to do something, God knows what, ask one of the nurses what her own name was and how to use a door-knob maybe.

Then she walked back in and asked if i ever take antacids.  Now, one of the first things most doctors
do is ask what medications people take.  She never bothered, nor did she look at my chart, because if she had she would have seen everything I'm taking, one of which is a daily pill for my acid reflux.

But no, I think she missed that day at medical school, along with the day when they taught bedside manner and taught that maybe you don't want to right away suggest to your patient that they might have colon cancer.

She also went on to tell me all the medical risks of one of the other pills I take, including blood clots, heart attack and breast cancer.

So in the span of about 5 minutes, she's given me a heart attack and two different forms of cancer.
Nice work, doc.

I left her office feeling like my head was on backwards, wondering what the hell had just happened.

I am seriously amazed that this woman was allowed to graduate from medical school.  Come to think of it, i don't know for sure that she did.

Either way, I'm never going back to her, nor is Steve, so in one afternoon, she cost the woman she's subbing for two patients.

It reminded me that good medical care is not a given, and that whenever possible, we should never be afraid to demand or seek out better care for ourselves and our loved ones.

So I've made an appointment with a different doctor at another practice.  We'll see.

In the meantime, I'll have another apple, please.