You're Fired!

Monday was the last straw for this camel. When I saw my primary doctor a few weeks ago she gave me two referrals, one for a more extensive gout work up and another for radiology.

The radiology referral was to get my legs checked for clots. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but I have pain in my legs (as well as everywhere else) but my doctor heard pain in my calves and jumped to clots. It's kind of become a running joke between Jeff and I lately. If I have pain in my arms or shoulders we declare that the clot has moved. If Jeff has pain in his ankle that he broke, then the clot has become contagious. You get the idea. There is no clot. If there was I'm fairly sure I would have had a stroke by now. Anyway, I had actually requested a referral for physical therapy. Imagine, getting actual relief for my pain! Is that done? Unfortunately my doctor had an "oh no, but if it's a clot I could get sued if I don't look for it" moment. Again, she declined to notice that I said it hurts everywhere and that there was never any swelling, redness or warmth in the area. Seriously, my nose and eyes are just about the only thing that doesn't hurt. So, I did the stupid gout test and found out that I don't have gout. Duh. I didn't say my joints hurt, just my muscles. She really has issues listening. But I refuse to do the blood clot test, because well, that's SO not the problem. When you're sick, tired and sore you don't want to go lugging the baby to an appointment in which you will have to wait an hour anyway to just have it come back with nothing. Negative test results are the only kind I get.

Anyway, last week I was really hitting a wall with the pain and decided to call in to get the physical therapy referral. I left the information and shortly after some one called me back form the office to get more information. This was about Wednesday. So I made an appointment for physical therapy for this past Tuesday. So a few days go by and no referral in the mail. Monday comes, so I call about it. Not only did they not have a record of the referral, but they didn't even have one of my request! So, after spending 30 minutes of the phone with some one, I thought we'd gotten it straightened out. She swore that she would fax one to the physical therapy office so I could keep my appointment for the next day. I knew better and I canceled my appointment. Yesterday Jeff went to get the mail, he comes inside and opens it. He reads a letter and then looks up at me. "What?" "You won't like this..." Sigh from me. "Just let me see it.." It was the radiology referral again. I'm not sure if my doctor is super adamant about the non-existent clot, or if the office just really can't follow directions. I just tore it up and trashed it. I did call the office that was supposed to receive this mythical referral by fax this morning. No fax. I am not surprised.

Here's another gem from my doctor's office. This, again, is one of those "this only happens to Katie" sort of thing. I have chronic pain (have I mentioned that enough yet?). Tylenol and rx strength Advil don't do anything and neither does regular Aleve. When I saw my doctor a few weeks ago she gave me a prescription for Aleve. It works out that rx strength Aleve is a little over two of the regular tablets (and also pretty worthless to me). She wrote a script for ten Aleve. Ten. Five days worth. Boy, was I relieved to know that I was going to be better in 5 days! Ahahaha. Not hardly. I don't know what she thought I was going to do with more Aleve. Grind them up and snort them? Sell them on the black market to stupid people? I know you shouldn't take some OTCs for more than a week, but chronic pain kind of gets a free pass there. She also didn't set up a contingency for when the Aleve ran out, you know, for something like physical therapy.

Other than a few good (or bad, really) stories, I haven't gotten much out of this practice. Needless to say, Monday I called around and made an appointment for a new practice for a few weeks away. I'm seeing the rheumatologist next week, and I'm sure, if nothing else, he'll give me a referral for physical therapy. Until then I guess I just got to deal.