[onetay]

Hi all,
I am sure that everyone of you can relate to this and if you can't you are the lucky person in the world :bow:. I call the doctors office to let them know I have the onset of Upper Respatory Infection hno:. You now want to get something, before you want to curl in a ball and be forgotten about.

Of course at 8:00am (when the office just opened there is no one available to take your call, they just all got there) so you leave a message in hopes that someone during the day will notice the blinking light . Well, after they have managed to get through there morning just before their lunch hour you call back (because no one has called you) . Now everyone is at lunch and yet another message that won't be seen.

Ok, they will call when they first get back from lunch :thumbs:. Now you notice it is like 3:30pm and the doctor will be leaving soon if you don't try yet again. So you give it one more try. The receptionist says they are all busy but you can leave a message :angry: :tuttut I don't think so!!!!). You politely tell her you have been trying to reach someone since 8 this morning. Then she says she will see if she can find a nurse :more:. The nurse comes on and asks what the problem is? (there are times when i would love to say I just called to see how you are doing, but I don't).

You tell her you know you have an upper infection starting and was hoping to get something so you can get it under control before it causes other problems. She says I don't think that is what is going on, it is cold season and that is what you have. Ok, well first of all I have this all the time, and second you don't even know how I feel you didn't ask :huh:. She will check with the doctor and adds you should of called sooner if she does order medicine it might not get called in today :? (to this I am confused as have left 2 messages that no one checks and called first thing to talk with someone and before lunch, not sure how much harder I could of tried to get a hold of someone).

Ok, after talked with the doctor (so she says) she calls you back. The doctor said there are a couple viruses going around and you have one, if it is not better in 7 days give us a call back and we will see what we can do for you :?. (Ok, I feel like I have an elephant is on my chest, my nose is running down the back of my throat, I am coughing so much and so hard that my ribs now hurt, I am running a non stop fever, but we can wait 7 days no problem and even though you get this twice a year You are not the one with the PH or MD behind your name so you don't know what you are talking about.) Why can't the medical profession just listen to us and help us instead of thinking that they have all the answers (when in fact they don't).

I mean who knows you better the doctor, your mom, or you? Well by now you are either laughing and shaking your head as this or something like this has happened to you or you are saying poor thing :lol:. This is a little of a vent and for humor cause if I don't make fun of it I will be mad and scream (which will not make me feel better this time). Please let me know if you too are just tired of being stupid and/or invisable to the medical community. Oh yeah I forgot we are all crazy too :rotfl:. I hope your week is going better than mine.

 

[keebler]

(((Tammy)))

I have given up on phone messages to the doctor. I just make an appointment instead to see him. With a phone call they cant see you and are rushing with other duties to do. I also think that they think if you are just calling in then you must not be so bad. That is just my opinion though.

Hope you get to feeling better soon.
:flowery:
Lyn

 

[KarolH]

Wow Tammy this is frustrating but I agree with Keebler that a phone call does not seem urgent enough, in my humble opinion. I think they feel like if your really in bad shape you either go in to see them or go to the local ER. I have had this happen to me on several occassions and it is very annoying.

I hope things get straightened out for you soon. Sorry this happened to you.

 

[onetay]

Thanks Ladies,
I want to thank you for your input. I only called because they have been so busy with the viruses that have been going around and it would be 2 weeks before I could get in to see them. I have called other times when having this and my other gp would ask a couple of questions and say we will get the meds called in and maybe that is the problem I am not dealing with my very missed gp. Was just wondering if others were running into the brick wall I was again Thank you both.

 

[LolaLola]

Hello Tammy, I can't remember if you are on any immunosuppressants but if you are it is wise to alert the Doc. at the first sign of any infection. This may seem overly fussy but the one time I thought I would wait and see I ended up ill for weeks. I hope you feel better soon.

x Lola

 

[Katharine]

Hi Tammy,

Yes, I too have learnt to go and see the doc sooner rather than later (when you can that is ).

I'm so so lucky with my GP. He has a secretary in in the morning - most unusual for the area, usually it's the doc himself who anwers - and the rest of the day it's either him or you call his mobile because he's out doing visits. If loads of people are sick his day is simply longer, docs here really don't do 9-5 and my last GP (very good doc and very popular) would often see patients at midnight (not good for his own health).

makes us realise how lucky we are when we can get hold of PH or MD!!!

Katharine

 

[debatat]

Tammy

How frustating for you. I hope that you are feeling better soon. It seems we cant win with docs, the last time I tried to tough out an infection, I ended up very ill for quite a few weeks and the doc told me off for not contacting them sooner. Yet when you do go to the docs they make you feel as if you are a nuisance!!!!

Take care
Deb

 

[elle-co]

Hi Tammy

wow talk about banging your head against a brick wall!!! Is this a new gp???
hope you are feeling better soon and if it gets any worse get yourself down to hospital.

Hugs
Elle x

 

[macfamily53]

(((Tammy)))

I do understand what you are saying for sure.I do have to say the gp i have right now trys to get you in that day now but used to not be able to get you in for days grr.I do not like going to the Er here because well besides it being real busy it is a very interesting place at any time and takes forever to be seen there when you dont feel good at all.I just really hope you are feeling much better real soon one way or another((((hugs)))).

Tammy

 

[Nutty]

And they wonder why the emergency rooms are over flowing???

Although, I must say I am one of the very lucky ones. My GP is excellent. He has a fairly new receptionist who is outstanding. She does return calls! Although they say that they don't renew prescriptions over the phone anymore, he does it for me all the time. He also gives me free notes that I need, insteading of charging me the $20 fee.

My rheumy is also outstanding. When I was very sick, he called me at home every other day. He even called me on a Saturday night from home.

Sorry, this isn't what you were wanting to hear, but I do sympathize with you. My greatest challenge is my local hospital. They have no clue about what I'm going through and sometimes I have to use them instead of going into the city. So, in this sense, I appreciate what you are going through.

Hope things get better for you.

Annette

 

[spellbinder]

hi tammy

i sure hope you are feeling better now, as i just read your post today and it was written a couple of days ago.
i realize this was a serious phone call and was important but i have to admit i was laughing thru it. this situation is sooo common. it happened to me almost identically. my was stomach problelm and hurling for over 2 weeks. i had gone thru all the anti-barf medication i got at the ER a week earlier. well after 3days of calling it was late friday afternoon and the nurse (so she called herself) said its just the flu take some pepto bismol. i told that this has been going on now for nearly 3weeks and i can't even keep water in me, and i'm to weak to move. she said oh the pepto will work this thing is going around if you aren't better by monday call back. well, i took the pepto and it hit my stomach and came right back up. to make this story alittle shorter i ended up in the hospital that nite and was there for a month, with serious stomach issue including an ulcer. like everyone else...now i just go in.

hope you feeling better
hugs and kisses

 

[onetay]

I have to admit when you said pepto bismol I started laughing uncontrollable. I know it is not funny believe me, but like you know what was coming. I am feeling better but it is going to take a little bit to get rid of it as they wasted a couple days, so I just called the rhuemy and he ordered a bunch off meds one being an anti for me, along with ear drops, preds, and cough syrup that is stronger than the over the counter stuff. It is bad when the rhuemy had to do the gp's job lol. He said it was ok that she would of just treated the upper resp. infection and that would not of been enough. He said that history tells him that lupus patients often get ear infections along with sinus with upper resp. infections. He started the pred to knock any flare that might be hiding in the background. The cough syrup has a stronge decongestant in it he said and something to help me sleep ( good now I will fall asleep at work lol).