During the last 10 or more years I ve seen the same MD for any and all medical situations.  He has always been pretty short on bedside manner which irritates me to no end.  Whenever he has referred me to a specialist for anything the specialist has always told me that they consider him to be one of the best family docs in the city.  Good for them!  I dont.

He needs a name for here so I ll call him Dr. Dork.  He has seen me through plenty of stuff.  Hyper tension, chronic bladder infections, a groin injury and type 2 diabetes just to get the list going.  In his defence I ll admit I m not very fond of MDs and if they are arrogant I m even less fond of them.  I fully understand when I m told that MDs commit suicide by jumping from their ego to their IQ.

Ok, I should confess that I m not the most ideal patient in the world.  I forget appointments, I lose lab requisitions, I confuse dosages and I m fond of researching alternative treatments.  On the upside to that alternative treatments thing I always ask Dr. Dork before I try anything.  His reaction makes me think he objects to my not blindingly following him.

As you can tell we re a bit mis-matched.  Due to me moving to a different part of the city and him relocating his clinic to the opposite end of the city it takes almost an hour to get to him.  I have appointments every six months with him.  They are basically a quick check up and prescription renewals.  Rather than give me a standing order for blood work he chosses to give me a requisition to be utelized six months down the road.  He has never caught on to the fact that my personal filing system doesnt always measure up to others standards.

Its relatively simple for me to know when my six monthly visit is due.  I read my perscription bottle and if it says 0 refills then its time for an appointment.  The procedure is to phone his office for an appointment and then begin the search for the damn lab req.  Sometimes it magically surfaces exactly where I left it.  (That is always a miracle because I never remember where that was.)  Most times it has disappeared.  I stronly suspect that Dr. Dork writes them on disintegrating paper just to make me agitated.

When this happens I go for my check up with out having done blood work.  He then snarls at me and grumbles about the amount of time it takes him to write a new order.  I ve timed that process.  Maximum time was 90 seconds.  Then of course I trot of to get the needles poked in me and wait to see if his office will call me to come back because there are changes we need to deal with.  In the past 5 years there has never been a change that required a return visit to adjust medication.   This routine was followed for my last appointment. 

After the appointment I came home with my lab req folded and safely tucked in the back pocket of my jeans.   That particular day was a busy one so I didnt go immediately to have the lab work done.  Next day was equally filled.  Day three I finally had time to do a round of washing.  My theory is that lab req s should be written on water proof paper.  Need I tell you that it didnt survive the wash.

This resulted in a need to call Dr. Dorks office and confess my sin to the receptionist.  I asked her to check with Dr. Dork to find out if I should make a new appointment or did he just want to issue a new req and let me drop by to pick it up, or even fax it to the lab if that was possible.  Three days later I still have no response.  I ve got enough medication to get me through about 10 days but I need to have my renewals by then.  I call again and the receptionist tells me she diarized my question for Dr. Dork but he hasnt gotten back to her.  She will remind him again.  One week passes and still no response.  With three days left I need to take some action.

I analyze the situation. 

1.  Dr. Dork is an hour drive away.

2.  Dr. Dork is less than pleasant.

3.  We are always in conflict over the smallest things.

4.  I m sloppy about my appointments and my blood work.

5.  His nurse is the sweetest thing in the world and she is the reason I keep going back.  (Are you paying attention Natalie.....You nurses DO make a big difference.)

6.  There is a walk-in clinic 2 blocks from house.  They also take new patients as for regular health care.

All things added up I decide to go to the local clinic.  I walk in and am seen in about 15 minutes by DR. Damn Nice.  She is a young and enthusiastic woman with a delightful attitude.  She does the routines efficiently asks a few questions, preps a blood req and sends me on my way with a month worth of scripts and instructions to come back in a few days when the lab work is back.

This is where it gets sticky.  Two days later the clinic nurse calls and says Dr. Nice would like to see you.  I tell her I ve already got a scheduled appointment for the next day.  She says that will do.  When I get there Dr. Nice talks to me about wanting to do a bit more blood work and an EKG.  Apparently my white cell count is elevated a bit and she wants to further examine the cause.  (Dr. Dork noted a slightly elevated white cell count a couple of years ago but made no suggestions for treatment.)

Dutifully I get the work done.  Twenty four hours later the clinic calls.  'Dr. Nice would like you to come in today.'  Now thats never good news in my book.  We negotiate a time three hours down the road and I spend the time contemplating what this could be.  Because I ve had an EKG I m pretty sure I have heart problems.  Dr. Nice chats with me about how I ve been feeling lately.  I confess that I ve not been feeling really great.  I ve been having some dizzy spells and hot flashes.  (These have been going on for a long time and have been written off as created by tension combined with frequent ear infections.  Dr. Dork perscribed a prn med that seemed to help but never pursued the cause any further.)

Dr. Nice tells me my heart is sound but the white cell count worries her.  She prescribes pennicylin (sp?) and an anti-biotic to be followed by blood work the day after all the meds have been taken.  Between us we speculate that the infection may be related to my teeth which badly need to be removed.  Now, anitbiotics work awfully for me.  While I m on them I feel terrible.  Sometimes its worse than the reason I m on them but they do work.  The day after I ve completed the regimin I feel incredibly good.  I havent had that much energy in a couple of years.  Off to the lab for the stab.

Twenty four hours later another call.  'Dr. Nice wants you to come in today.'  Yaaaaaaaaargh!  Now what!  Seems my white cell count is in worse shape than it was before the antibiotics.  We ruminate about why this might be.  I cant think of anything and I really do feel great.  Finally I recall that while I was on the antibiotics I had a flu shot.  (From a flu clinic so I wasnt advised that it could affect later blood work.)  Dr. Nice tells me to wait a week and have the blood work done again.  She is pretty sure the flu shot is what caused the, hopefully, temporary elevation of white cells.

In the meantime I have an appointment with a dental surgeon.

Wow.  That took forever to relate.  Sorry about that.