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Friday, January 16, 2015

Where did the file go?


Is it baked into a cake?

You may recall my melt down of about a month ago, wherein I had screwed up my courage to inquire into pain blocking injections in my back. I put in serious time waiting for appointments with doctors who would refer me to a doctor would assess the wisdom. 

All the damn protocols! But I waited out all of them, got the referral to an appropriate physician, made the phone call for an appointment, and blam!

Straight up against a scheduler with no empathy and her own protocols. Without the file of a certain doctor who currently is incarcerated for molesting his patients, no appointment. The fact I walked out of that doctor’s office during my second appointment, shaking off people who wanted me to make another appointment, and throwing down the note the doctor pushed into my hand, “I only want you to be the best you can be!”, without his notes Ms. Gatekeeper would not schedule an appointment.

I steeled myself, went back to the bad doctor’s office and requested my records. I opted for the cheaper course of having the bad doctor’s staff fax them, and left. I did not sit down the entire time. I tried again to get the appointment scheduled, but until those records were in Ms. Gatekeeper’s hand, no dice.

I called the referring physician’s secretary and explained my dilemma. We conspiratorially agreed she would refer me to another doctor and I would never mention the bad doctor to anyone, ever, again. The plan worked perfectly; the only drawback being the additional one month wait to see a new pain management doctor, which I did today.  

The assessment over, the procedure date set, I came home and found a message from the original Ms. Gatekeeper. Actually, I did not recognize her name and could not conceive of why she called, so I called her back.

Will you believe they have not yet received my record(s) (plural only because it was the second visit wherein I stood up and left the doctor sitting in the exam room) in order to schedule my appointment. I sighed deeply and told her I was OK with waiting until they showed up; she could call me then.

As I hung up and chuckled I realized those records probably were subpoenaed and are in some attorney’s storage room. Who knows? Who cares? Payback….



27 comments:

  1. My husband has serious pain issues after back surgery. He goes for injections regularly. I sure hope you are able to get relief like he does. And soon! Good for you that you found a way out of that dilemma caused by "protocol". I know a few other words for that!

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  2. Good grief! This is so crazy!

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  3. I'm just so worried about the pain you're living in. Chronic pain is so insidious, so mood-altering, so impossible to fake one's way through.

    I want relief for you.

    Also: could you sometime send me the name/address of your Etsy store? I want to buy some dish towels from you, if that's possible.

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  4. I'm glad you finally have an appointment for treatment and i hope it is successful. I also hope that first doctor spends many years in jail.

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  5. Those people don't know who they are messing with. They better get you some relief quick!

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  6. Oh geesh, what a nightmare for you when you are just trying to get some relief of your pain!

    betty

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  7. Thank goodness at least one doctor's office has good sense!

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  8. I hope Ms Gatekeeper comes up against someone of her own ilk.
    And hope that this next round proceeds without a hitch. Or a hiccup. Or a glitch.

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  9. Sorry you've had to go through all this, Joanne. Hopefully, the pain specialists will get their act together, and come up with a treatment for you soon. Hope you feel better!

    Julie

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  10. I hope the procedure alleviates your pain. I mean the pain in your back not the pain caused by Ms. Gatekeeper. I believe you took care of her yourself.

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  11. It's good that your referring physician has some common sense. You're probably right about where your records are. As for the Gatekeeper and her ilk, one wonders why some people end up in a helping profession when they don't seem to know what the word "helping" means. (Can you tell I have met a few of them, too ...) I do hope you get help for your chronic pain.

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  13. ha, ha, ha...Oh I hope now you can get some real relief.

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  14. Here in Hawaii, I see most of my doctors at one medical center, so my records are electronically stored on the computer system there. Every examination room has a computer, so no problems with referrals and medical records.

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  15. Oh, my dear, how I do sympathise with you. I have back pain to, but am fortunate in being able to treat it effectively with ibuprofen and when necessary a prescription drug. I hope that when you are under proper care you will be as fortunate. When my back goes I am out of circulation for a few days -- So you have my very best wishes for the future.

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  16. Hari OM
    Deary me, between educational systems and med systems, you are having your fill of bureaucratic b******s!!! YAM xx

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  17. It takes a clever (cunning?) mind to work around the system these days!

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  18. Hard to say which pain was worse.....the one in your back or the one in your neck. I sure hope the treatment turns out to be worth what you had to go through to get it. Fingers crossed.

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  19. And presumably all this time you are still in pain?

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  20. Oh dear - I do hope you get some relief in every way soon!

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  21. what a bunch of hoey; hope the pain goes away quickly, what one has to do to get care is, well you know

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  22. As a fellow sufferer I hope they get you straightened out soon. I'm doing better and I think if it would quit raining here I'd be ok.

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  23. What a strange, strange procedure to get an appointment! But now you seem to have found a better doctor - and I hope your pains will soon be bettered or even over!

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  24. I would have flat out told her that due to her refusal to schedule an appointment that I had in fact already been to a different doctor who was more than happy to see me.

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  25. I love people who figure out ways to maneuver around the rules.

    Love,
    Janie

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  26. I thought that with all that computerizing files were very easy to transfer.
    Hope you feel better.

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