Ridiculous doc visit

[kitten]

I always dread going to the doctor. I've had so many awful practitioners I could write a book about it (and I may!)...Anyway, we moved to a new city three years ago, and DH and I started seeing a male doctor who accepts our insurance. He's sort of unconscious, but more about that later.

So anyway, I had a pap smear due, and this doctor recommended a female doctor in the adjacent suite. I wasn't looking forward to trying to establish a new relationship with yet another doctor, but I made the appointment and went in. The nurse was nice, and I was feeling better. So Dr. Pradesh came in (not her real name), and we had a nice chat about this and that. Then my heart started sinking. She asked me a string of questions about my background. Suddenly she says, "Didn't you fill out this information somewhere?"

I said yes, all of my chartwork had been done by the previous doctor. And she's STANDING there staring at her laptop. "Oh," she says, and types some stuff in and accesses my chart. I'm thinking, so why didn't she do that before? Or maybe look at my chart BEFORE coming in the room? Do these people ever do any prep at all?

Then she asks for details of my family medical history. I explain that I don't have it, because I was adopted. (This was in my chart, which she hadn't taken the time to read.) Another "Oh!" It was apparently in the records that my mother died of ovarian cancer. She pointed that out, and I repeated that my mother wasn't biologically related to me, so it wasn't really relevant. (I'm explaining this to the doctor, lol!)

She goes, "Oh." And then, "Well, you're not at risk for ovarian cancer then."

And I'm like, WTF?? I have NO family medical background info, so I don't know what I might be at risk for. I might be at risk for ovarian cancer or I might not. Not knowing doesn't mean you're not at risk! This woman had clearly skipped logic in college. I sat there thinking of all the things I could be monitoring, if I had any information about my background. It's always made me uneasy not knowing anything. But the doctor interps this as: Woo hoo, free pass, you're adopted! No worries!

How do these people get through school?

Oh, and this really takes the cake: So it's a pap smear, and I'm sitting there in the stirrups, and she opens the lady parts and says, "Oh no!"

And I'm dying a thousand deaths, picturing all kinds of unspeakable things that could have prompted the doctor's exclamation. And then she says:

"That person coughing in the next room! Sounds awful, that's whooping cough!"

I wanted to sit up in those stirrups and take her head right off. I didn't say it, but in my mind I was all: "Don't you EVEN be opening up my lady parts and saying OH NO! DO NOT SCARE ME LIKE THAT! You stupid crap-for-brains so-and-so! And get the hell outta there, too, before you do me any damage! I wouldn't trust you as far as I could kick you!"

Of course, I didn't say that.

So that's partly why I can't stand doctors. (sigh) Thanks for letting me rant!

[CathyA]

I have to agree that there are some pretty pathetic docs out there. And I learned very quickly that going to a female doc doesn't mean they're going to be more sensitive.
You just have to keep looking, and hopefully you'll find a decent one. Docs of today aren't like the docs of yesteryear. They are businesspeople, and that's all.
I too have had more than my share of insensitive idiots for docs.

[kib]

I'll join you and add a story of my own. I was recently in the hospital and the admitting staff realized they'd forgotten to do any sort of pelvic exam or vaginal culture - for abdominal pain and fever, awesome detective work there. So ... they go to do this two days later and realize there are no beds with stirrups in this tiny hospital, save one being used by a woman in labor. After much ado about trying to do without, someone remembers that there is indeed a bed with stirrups - it's being stored in this unused office along with every other piece of unnecessary equipment and supply. So off we go, me and my wheelchair and my IV pole and my flapping gown, to have a pap smear (still no pelvic, which might have solved the whole mystery) in something that resembles a janitor's closet with a total stranger. Very nice woman who seemed appalled by the whole thing but somehow unable to summon the courage to say, "this is ridiculous".

[kitten]

Thanks for the support, guys )

OMG, that is terrible, kib! The kind of thing that you'd think someone should know about...I never think to report anything until later, and I never know quite who to complain to. Maybe the hospital itself, or a physician's board or something?

[kib]

Well I did get a questionaire to fill out and I mentioned it there. Really, this hospital has a terrible reputation and I wasn't going to go there except it was a holiday weekend and it's very close to home - NOT, I've discovered, a good enough reason to put yourself in the hands of incompetents. I knew I was in trouble when they gave me a potion that gave me the runs every ten minutes ... and then put me in a room with a bathroom door that would stick to the point where I couldn't open it. Nothing like waltzing around, hunched over and feverish, in the dark at 3 am - and 3:10, and 3:20 - with an IV pole and a needle in your arm, eyes, legs and fingers crossed as you haul and jiggle madly on the doorknob.

[Amaranth]

I once had an ER doc say to me with great puzzlement that he was quite surprised that I was still alive. He noted that he could not really explain how it was possible.

At the time and still, I am not sure if I should have been insulted, marveling along with him, or pointing out that that probably was not tops on the list of things you might say to your ER patient.

I do remember thinking that it was fortunate that his medical skills way exceeded his interpersonal skills.

[Kathy WI]

I had an eye doctor say to me, while doing the eye exam, "Geez, how did you even pass your driver's test?" Jerk.

[iris lily]

In my long life and brief history with doctors, there's only been 2 I liked. One was my childhood physician who not only took care of me for years, but who once drove my old cat back to the cat's new house when she saw him limping along the road, heading toward cat's old house. Cat did not take to the move well, and he was a tripod cat so walking half a mile wasn't easy for him.

The other doc I liked was this short Russian Jew who came highly recommended by friends, and I dug him (for a physician.)But damn, he up and moved to, of all places, Arkansas and I felt abandoned. Have hated everyone since.

I think DH's doc is cute and I wouldn't mind going to him, but he's not taking new patients. He is gay and the gay community keeps him pretty busy.

[iris lily]

I will also mention that, hating docs, I have whichever GP I'm visiting do the pap smear, it's not a big deal, they know how to do it and you don't have to go to a specialist. I think that specialist gyno thing is much ado about nothing in most cases.

[Tenngal]

husband whet for his yearly health insurance screening this morning. When the Dr. listened to his heart he heard something he did not like. They ran an EKG and wanted to call an ambulance to come and pick him up. He would not have it, but did take himself to the ER for another EKG. This one was normal and the Dr. did not hear anything unusual. Clinic calls him this afternoon and talks him into wearing a heart monitor a couple of days next week. Now we are scared to death and don't know who to believe. I suspect, perhaps unjustly so, that we are being milked for insurance payouts. Problem is, insurance will not pay it all. I am sure he will end up having to see and specialist to rule out any heart problems. That's why most of us only go to the Dr. when we have no other choice. They always find something and run you all over the place, it is never ending.