somewhere in that title may be a character from the simpsons, perhaps the doctor... not that i saw the doctor today, no, i walked into the walk-in clinic that is where the doctor i chose after hours of trying to find a doctor among the doctors listed on my insurance website and finding that the first five or six doctors i chose were no longer at the number or location listed (a fine way to start, insurance company... shall i have blind faith confidence in your ratings of doctors the way i am supposed to have blind faith confidence in the medical profession when you can't even maintain an up-to-date database of doctors?... anyway, after finally choosing a doctor and wading through the automated recordings and pushing the buttons on my phone, i made an appointment... i could have had an appointment for tomorrow morning, which might have been a clue that this doctor was not very busy, but as my schedule was booked for tomorrow and the doctor was not in on friday, i made an appointment for monday morning... and then i decided not to wait to take care of unclogging my ears...
yes, my ears clogged up to the point of frustrating hearing loss which happens every few years when i finally try to clean my ears myself... this body is an ear wax producing machine and no amount of careful cleaning or rinsing of the ear canals is gonna irrigate enough to keep the canals from eventually getting clogged so every year or so i really need to have them professionally irrigated and so i decided to call the doctor's office and find out whether they take walk-in patients and if they can irrigate an ear... they said yes over the phone... they are open seven days and upon arriving i see that the doctor i chose actually was one of two doctors running a walk-in clinic... hmmmm, have i become a number in a medical industry revolving door?... so i saw five people... a receptionist who did the paperwork thing, am unidentified girl who took my vitals, an MA (whatever that means) who took some information (and ultimately irrigated my ears), a PA who took more information and played the role of the doctor, and a billing person who said no charge for today... they were alarmists when they saw my blood pressure was high and both the MA and PA urged me to take a psychotropic medication... klonopin, used in psychiatric hospitals (with lots of warnings and disclaimers and monitoring) for bipolar disorder, seizure control, and other perception and mood altering reasons (stop talking klonopin if you feel the urge to kill yourself after taking klonopin... sure, that right there is reassuring enough to take it to lower blood pressure, right?... freakin medical industry seems to have lost any sense of rational logic)... am i ranting?...
anyway, they brought in the MA to double-urge me and warn me and document my double-refusal of klonopin cuz their lawyers tell them they better do that or i might sue them (note i was there with the primary complaint that i could not hear them and actually could not hear them as they ran in circles around my blood pressure) and then irrigated my ears and sent me on my way (i thanked them for my hearing and told them i look forward to meeting my doctor monday... i wonder if he will be as alarmed and panicked and drug-pushing as the people i met today were)... interestingly, they gave me very skimpy paperwork and no HIPAA paperwork to sign... the typical no real patient relationship walk-in clinic rush... i mean, it was great to be seen and in and out so quickly (i was screened and getting my ears flushed before i completed my new patient paperwork), but i am hoping the first meeting of my new primary care doctor is not so rushed (i am already considering getting a second opinion, primarily because i am looking for a doctor who takes a holistic approach after taking the time to get a detailed history of a patient's medical history, lifestyle, personality, and preferences and not just the skimpiest of screenings of medical history)...
in other words (to all medical professionals), if you want to treat someone with high blood pressure, then calm the fuck down!... i mean, that is what you want the patient's body to do, right?... slow down, relax, and stop being a drug pusher...
narf :)
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