Sunday, October 17, 2010

it has been kind of a crappy week

So I hurt my right shoulder.  That was annoying.  I didn't even hurt myself doing something fun like having super-innovative s.ex.  Of course.  And then there was this.  Also annoying.

But the most SUPERTY CRAZY MIND-NUMBING STUPIDLY annoying thing was communicating with my doctor's office.  Now.  I know I have mentioned here before how much I really love my doctor and I love the way she does business and I love the fantastic customer service we have experienced in the past six years of being her patients.  If you are in dire need of a link to prove such pink-puffy-heartedness, let me know, and I will  look it up if I have been properly caffeinated.

During one of my superty-crazy-mind-numbing-stupid conversations, I did tell the office person that I wanted to speak directly with my doctor... and that never actually happened.  Which, in all honesty, is probably a good thing because I was blisteringly angry for a few days about the Big Nonsense, and I probably would not have been able to have a Properly Adult Conversation about the Big Nonsense. 

So.  Tonight after I put the short people to bed, I called the On-Call Service.  (One of the doctors at our practice is available every single hour of the day that the office is not open.  I like this feature.  Also?  I like that the doctors call you RIGHT FLIPPING THEN.)

Turns out my actual doctor was on call.  So I had her paged.  I would have waited until another night if a different doctor was available.

I talked to her about what is going on with my (still very painful) shoulder, and she agreed that the physical therapy appointment on Monday is a good idea, and then she said she would call me Monday night so that we could discuss what the PT said, and make some decisions about how to progress.  

This made me very, very, very happy because I haven't been able to actually talk about how to make me less broken since Tuesday.

Then I talked to her about how frustrating it was to deal with the office staff this week.  I made it clear I was not complaining about anybody in particular, I just wanted her to know that I had made WAY too many phone calls and nobody had called me back and there was a certain snippy-ness to some of the people I spoke with and how, basically, the customer service completely sucked.  

We talked about things for almost an hour.  She was very upset to hear that I was unhappy, and I mentioned that some of my friends (who are also her patients) were also displeased with similar issues.   She asked me about my perceptions of each of the providers in the practice, my experiences, what my children's feelings toward going to the doctor's office are... it was a wonderful conversation.

This is why she is my doctor.  She really cares about serving her patients.  And she uses phrases like SERVING PATIENTS. 

So.  Yes, it has been a pretty crappy week.  I still am having sharp, stabby pains in my shoulder, and dull, achy ick down the rest of my arm.  My fingers are still often numb.  I can't really do my (million) job(s) in my home.

But.  I finally feel like somebody actually cares enough about this little situation of mine to help me sort through it.  And that makes me happy.  Also, I am trying to find a way to describe the sudden wave of SUPER HAPPY that just washed over my little self, but it's the kind of super happy that makes it hard for me to form coherent sentences and recite the alphabet backwards and walk the line.  So I will just go to bed. 

10 comments:

  1. glad to hear of happy.
    it makes my heart smile.
    though the crappy shoulder pain doesn't make me happy ... but hopefully (fingers crossed) it won't be awfully-awful too much longer.

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  2. aw, yay for super happy! praying for you!

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  3. Oooh. Good doctor. Bad shoulder. Bet she'll tell her staff to let her know as soon as you call. As for the PT? I'm thinking it's way too inflamed right now to start that, but maybe the PT-meisters will think different. Sigh. Thinking good thoughts for you.

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  4. You know, it's time to call in the best-friend troops and get some help with the short people and stuff. I'll bet you hate that as much as I do, but DO IT ANYWAY. They will bring casseroles.

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  5. I aggravated my rotator cuff doing laundry - which is pathetic. Get better soon chickie!

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  6. I wish I could find a single doctor that listened like that....

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  7. I'm hoping that the part you forgot at the end of this was: And she wrote me lots of nice prescriptions and said, "it's all on the house b/c of the snippiness."

    The End.

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  8. So what's the verdict? I am a physical therapist, so I am anxious to know.

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  9. Ouch. And I'm so glad that you feel like she's on your side. May it be feeling better this week.

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  10. Good for the awesome Dr. A hearty boo for crappy-ass support staff. And a triple hearty boo for a mama who needs her shoulder being wounded. Totally blows.

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talk to me, people. because you know i get all giddy when you do.