We have been reaping many blessings from God of late. The rains have finally come, two and half inches so far and more on the way tomorrow through the weekend.
I’ve been very blessed to have found three new doctors in the past few months after becoming weary of putting up with less than professional behavior and treatment from the pulmonologist, optometrist, and dentist I’ve been seeing for many years. Seems like Covid broke many in the medical community, just fried their poor little brains and they’ve forgotten their duty to patients and putting our needs first.
I see my new pulmonologist this morning for my second visit. I saw him the first time six months ago and it’s time for me to have a breathing test. He was shocked and visibly upset when I told him I was not allowed to complete my last scheduled visit over a year and a half ago with my previous specialist because the woman at the desk refused to allow me to stay without wearing a mask and that no one from his office had ever even called to check on my health and welfare. Dr. Zuriqat assured me that he and his staff would take excellent care of me and that if ever I felt there was a problem to call him immediately.
I had my first visit Tuesday with my new optometrist. Brad has been seeing him for a couple of years now and is very pleased with Dr. Patterson and his staff. I was greatly relieved to have been given a thorough, professional eye exam including pictures of both of my eyes showing that I have no serious problems at all. I have a couple of teeny, tiny cataracts that he’ll keep an eye on, but no glaucoma, no pressure problems of any kind. I have a prescription for new lenses if I want to use it but for the time being I don’t think it will be necessary. Most of my problems lately I believe are from eye strain and allergy symptoms, both of which are easily remedied on my part!
My former eye specialist’s office has gone downhill, even before the Covid nonsense started. Brad went with me for my last appointment back in August and we actually got up and left after waiting for an hour without even seeing the doctor. The so-called eye exam was a farce, the staff can’t speak in a normal tone of voice…apparently they’re all accustomed to speaking to deaf people and shout at one another and the patients. The acoustics in the building are terrible and there is music blaring in the exam rooms and a TV blaring in the waiting room. The last three pairs of glasses I got from his clinic had to be sent back to the lab to be remade due to the wrong prescription. I’d had enough.
As for my former dentist, well…the last time I was there I was told I had to wear a mask to walk the short distance from the waiting room to the exam room because “We don’t want you breathing on anyone now, do we?” I was so angry I probably should have left right then and there, but I didn’t. All I needed was to have my teeth cleaned so I put up with it, but never went back.
Now I am seeing Brad’s dentist, Dr. Smith, who is in practice with his father. They are great! All of the staff are so attentive and caring. When I was having trouble with too much noise from too many loud voices and the music playing in the waiting room they let me wait in a quiet room until it was time for my exam. I also found out from Dr. Smith that the expensive dental work that my previous dentist had me scheduled for was not necessary and there is nothing wrong with my teeth. I had a tiny cavity between two back teeth and he took care of it. And he made me a new bite guard out of the proper materiel for my needs instead of the useless piece of crap bite guard that cost me over $400 at my former dentist. Turns out that I need a more flexible one, not the rigid kind that I hadn’t been able to wear anyway.
I hadn’t realized until after my eye exam Tuesday how much weight has been lifted off my shoulders with regard to finding competent health care. We have Humana Advantage with no copay for our MD and $35 for a specialist visit. The meds that I take for blood pressure and to keep my acid reflux under control don’t cost me a dime. The only prescriptions that cost me anything are the Breo inhaler for my asthma, the migraine tablets, and the lorazapam for anxiety and the cost is not a problem.
We have a wonderful MD who listens and stays on top of things. Dr. Hui is great and I don’t know what I’d do without her. The only other problem with regard to a competent specialist is that the urologist who removed my kidney stone last May thought it was a good idea to try to shame me into wearing a mask in the exam room (Brad wasn’t with me that time as it was a follow up visit). It didn’t work. He was a complete ass and I basically ignored him. I’m 68 yrs old. I don’t appreciate being spoken to as if I were a naughty child by a male doctor twenty years younger than me.
“Oh! You aren’t wearing a mask!” Nope. I’m not. “Well! I have to wear a mask because YOU won’t!” OK. My non-response to his bullshit and nonsense brought him up pretty sharp and he just stood there at a loss for words for several seconds before trying to regain control of the situation by asking me what I was knitting. I held up my needles, said “Socks” and kept on knitting. I left as soon as I could and I haven’t been back.
When I was a kid everyone was expected to do exactly what your doctor told you to do and never question a thing. Yeah, that dog don’t hunt anymore. Gone are the days that anyone in my immediate family is going to blindly trust something simply because the doctor says it’s so. We keep looking until we find a doctor who listens instead of preaches, a doctor who knows at a glance what is in our medical record, a doctor we can trust. They’re out there. Sometimes you have to weed out the assholes to find the good ones, but it’s worth it in the end.
Rural Texas Knitter 