Drama

I would not call myself a drama queen, at least I don't think I ever used to be.  However, since my aneurysm my life seems filled with it.  And I really hate drama, unless it is on a stage intended to entertain, and even then I sometimes find it stressful!!! A simple thing like having records sent to a new doctor turned into this big battle, where I was forced to 'threaten' the office with calling their corporate office and filing a complaint.  Are you kidding me??? They are my records!  The story goes like this.  In August, I, along with 3,000 (I was told) other patients, were informed that our doctor was 'no longer affiliated with Prime Care Psysicians'.  No advanced warning, no smooth transition to a trusted office.  Nope, more like 'good luck, fend for yourself suckers'. Now any 'normal' person would simply find a new doctor assuming they all have a medical degree.  NOT ME! I have been with this PCP doctor since before my aneurysm.  She knew my neurosurgeon team and I trusted her! Everyone in the office knew me and it was familiar. Upon finding out of her leaving her practice I contacted my neurosurgery office and, as always, they spoiled me and got me a list of doctors they and their patients like or trust!  So, after hours of waiting on hold to ask if doctors accepted new patients, and looking up how people rated the doctors online, I finally choose a new doctor (I still can't believe a doctor could be younger than me). So, in the 9 years of being with the previous doctor I never once had my records sent to any specialists I was supposed to see.  The office staff always blamed it on the doctor holding them up for approval, but I really liked the doctor, and she really knew brain injury so, I just 'put up with it' .  I suspected that my old doctor was only part of the problem so, back in September (as soon as humanly possible for me), I sent my release form to their office for the records to go to the new office, with a note specifically stating they needed to be sent by October 27 for an appointment.  Last week, I checked with the new office....NO RECORDS. I called the old office who assured me they would send a note to the records coordinator and would be sent ASAP, even though I had "volumes of records, that must be retrieved from storage"(that was the excuse for not sending them)!!  I still had my doubts.  Monday I called the new office again....NO RECORDS. My rescheduled appointment was the next day, and I am NOT a simple case, I didn't have the energy to explain my entire medical history again, it is so hard to constantly rehash it!!! So, Monday I marched myself into the old office to take care of it in person.  The records lady was 'out for lunch'.  The secretary wrote a note and assured me they would be there tomorrow.  Now, if you know me, I fixate on things (some call it 'obsessive' others call it,' persistent', while some just find it annoying).  After running one errand I went back to the old office and there was a different secretary this time.  The records lady was still not going to talk to me because she was "busy working" (on what, I'm not sure).  "What is it that you want me to do??", she asked.  "I want somebody in this office to look me in the eye and promise me the records will be there tomorrow", I said as nicely as I could! I got the usual eye roll and defensive, "I don't think it is very professional for you to ask me to look you in the eye and tell you those records will be there.  And, just to let you know we have 30 days to release them ".  Now I am just so mad I can't even think and reply, "YOU ARE WAY OVER YOUR 30 DAYS, YOU HAD MY RELEASE FORM IN SEPTEMBER, PLEASE HAVE MY RECORDS THERE SOMEHOW TOMORROW OR I WILL FILE A COMPLAINT WITH PRIME CARE." (Thank you to my experienced friends who helped me write down a response before I went there, knowing what would happen from their own experience)!
As it turns out, I went to my appointment and was scheduled for the wrong doctor at the new office.  So, yesterday they had an opening for the doctor I really wanted.  I went to her and I really, really like her.  You have no idea how thankful I am, and the records were there. They were all annoyingly out of order, which I suspect may have just been out of spite. I do, however, find it hard to believe they are the complete collection since the new office 'only' had 103 pages.  I have seen my current file and there are way more than that just in the one I saw.  I suspect there are some missing files!! I am just so tired of the drama and of nobody doing their job and of nobody caring! But, since I got the flu shot in one arm and tetanus booster(out of order records= new doctor couldn't find vaccination records) in the other, I will fight that another day when I don't feel like I've been 'hit by a bus'.

Not 32 yet, thank you very much!!!

Upon arriving home from the new doctor, I was ready for a nap!! I glanced down at the new prescriptions she gave me and noticed my age on them was 32.  I panicked, I thought I was 31!! Was I really turning 33 this year???  I got out a calculator and, it said 32, also. Now I really thought I lost it completely.  Now, I am thinking, "great now I have to learn my age again, I thought I had gotten beyond that!!!"  It then dawned on me that it was not December yet, so this year I will turn 32 not 33.  The computer and my simple calculator calculations did not take into account what month it was in the year, just that this year is 32 years from the year in which I was born!! All is well, prayers about a new doctor have been answered!!