Last Friday I started have pain in my left side. I could not lay on my left side or back and even sitting was painful. The pain would come and go throughout the weekend. At its worst I was in debilitating pain. It would hurt in not matter what position I was in. I thought it was a pulled muscle or something and did not want to go to the doctor. I am poor and terrified of doctors.
I went to work on Thursday and I had a little bit of pain but it was tolerable. Then I was there about 4 hours and it started to really hurt. I called my doctor on my break to set up an appointment for later that day. I was hoping to tough it out and finish the inventory but the pain got worse and worse. I told my boss and he said I could not leave so I worked through the pain until I could not take it anymore. Finally he told me I could leave but I would get written up. So I left and went home. My appointment was not until 4 PM. I laid in my bed in pain and kept telling myself I just had to get to my appointment and it would be ok. I got to my appointment 45 minutes early hoping I could get in the see the doctor a little early.
My parents go to this doctor’s office and I had only been there once before. While I was there was a middle aged couple that went in before me. The lady come out and went outside while the guy was still in with the doctor. She came back in and asked the receptionist if the receptionist if she would get her keys from she fiancé who was in with the doctor. The receptionist said that the lady could go back there and get them. Then this lady went off on the receptionist. She said “That lady doctor is a bitch. When I called to set up a new patient appointment for him they said he would be able to discuss all of medical issues with his doctor. She would not even look at the information he filled out and he needed to make a septate appointment to disuse all of his medical issue.” Then the receptionist asked her a question. I could not really hear it from where I was sitting. Then the lady said that he just wanted a referral to an endocrinologist, a prescription for like high blood pressure or cholesterol and something else I don’t remember. Then receptionist than said that he would have to make a separate appointment for that. Then that lady was really pissed off and said “this is ridiculous and I’m glad I’m not a patient here.” I kept thinking while this whole thing was happening I really hope this is not my doctor she is talking about.
Then I was called back in to the examining room. I was waiting for the doctor and I heard a lady talking to a man outside of my room. She said something like “Your fiancé is not welcome here and if she comes back I cannot be your doctor. “ I kept thinking “please don’t be my doctor.” It was. I told her that I was having a lot of pain in my left side and if hurt when I moved. She listened to my lungs and told me to go to the ER and even offered to call me an ambulance. It could be pneumonia or appendicitis and I would need a chest x-ray. I asked her what I needed to tell the ER and she said just tell them my symptoms.
This whole situation really pissed me off. Do you have any idea how expense it is to go to the ER? The cost difference between going the doctor’s office/urgent care and ER is like a hundred vs. several hundred dollars. I am very poor like well below the poverty level poor. And her medical advice is going to the ER and I have to pay $100 dollars for a doctor’s visit. I refuse to pay it that is bull shit.
Then I just sat in my car and cried. I was in a lot of pain and did not know what to do. The ER was out of the question. I called my mom and she went with me to the urgent care. I waited over an hour in agonizing pain. They took a urine sample. I meet with the doctor and he had them do an EKG and a chest x-ray. They gave me a shot for the pain. Everything came back ok and then he recommended that I get a CT scan because he thought there was a possibility I had a pulmonary embolism. It was a bit scary. I had to go to the ER to get the CT scan. The doctor called the hospital in advance to set everything up so I just had to walk in and give them a paper from doctor. (This is what the other doctor should have done.) They did the CT scan and I spoke the doctor on the phone. Luckily the test came back fine and the doctor was not sure what was causing the pain. He prescribed me some medication for the pain and I could pick it up from the pharmacy the next day. The whole thing was awful.
The next day I called the pharmacy and they did not have the prescription for me. I called the Urgent Care and had to leave a message because for some reason it is impossible to speak with an actual person. So I waited till around 1 pm and when I had not heard back I decided to go the Urgent Care and talk to an actual person. I got a call from the Urgent Care when I was about a block away and the lady said that the prescription had already been called in. I decided to still go to the Urgent Care to get a work excuse. When I got there they said they had no record that I had ever been there. Seriously? They told me to take a seat and they would look some more. While I sat there I thought to myself am I schizophrenic or do I have some kind of delusional disorder? Am I literally insane and just imagined this whole thing? An hour later they found my records, they were attached to the back or another person’s medical record. Really? Then the lady said that she would call the pharmacy and put in my prescription. (So what about the phone call? Was it complete BS?) Several hours later I called the pharmacy and they had not heard from the Urgent Care. I called my mom in tears I was so frustrated. My mom was mad and went by the Urgent Care to work it out. She told me to try the pharmacy again the nurse had called in the prescription again. I called and they STILL did not have it. I called my mom back so angry. While I was on the phone with my mom I got a call from the pharmacy. Apparently it was misplaced under some papers and they miraculously found. (What are the odds this would happen to me twice in the same day?)
This whole experience was awful. I am never going to my family doctor again. I think it is a crime that she is even allowed to practice medicine. Her best advice is to go the ER? There is no other test that she could have run on me in the office? I think that it was getting close to 5 o’clock and she wanted to go home. So instead of doing her job, she thought she would just pawn me off on another doctor.