Can you die from sheer aggravation? After being married to one man for fifty years...with the current outrageous presidential campaign...my list, like everybody's is seemingly endless. I am still here, however. I suppose even when you feel like you're aggravated to death, you are not.
It has long been a source of frustration for me that I am required to have an ongoing relationship with a doctor. When I think about how, at my age, it's unavoidable, the blood pressure that is one of the issues that I'm forced to count on her to prescribe her pills for, just soars right up. When I arrive at the office, my blood pressure is always higher than usual.
So-o-o, I'm back in town. I have an appointment with a new doctor, since my fifteen year physician is no longer available and recommended Dr. New and Improved. First point of making me want to scream? After over an hour of waiting, she swirls in, (like Loretta Young...anybody remember her?) smiles and introduces herself. "Sorry to tell you, it hasn't been quite a year since your last appointment for an annual and therefore your insurance won't pay yet."
REALLY?! No one knew that when I made the appointment or even an hour and a half ago. My plump little old lady body that the scales just reported had not lost one single damn ounce perched on the edge of the exam table for nearly an hour. My legs dangled like a helpless child, my blood boiled and my mind planned all my arguments to give her. I never go "quietly into the night" in the doctor's office.
I would so like to slap that smile off her young and pretty face. I will have to return in three weeks...I will have to get up at the crack of dawn, starve and drive back into town and wait and wait. I will pay my price like a hostage held for drug ransom. And, just so this visit won't be a waste, says Dr. New, she has a list of innoculations that are HIGHLY recommended to keep my body from falling prey to creeping age and deterioration.
I had to practically beg to get her to look at a spot I was concerned about...it looks fine but when I return, she can refer me to a skin doctor. This, my dear friends, is what your doctor is about these days. They prescribe, refer and run tests. I know times change, often for the best, but Good Grief! The hubby and I had a family physician for years. He took care of me, delivered three babies for me, and then took care of the babies. The man did everything short of major surgery in his office.
How I would love to rant and rave to the doctor and medical system instead of you, but there is chronic deafness there. The patient's needs and complaints are drowned out by the noise of the huge money making machine. I'll just sit here and type out my frustrations with the one good arm that I have. The other one that I got two shots in---a latest miracle pneumonia and a life and death required tetanus---has hung limp and aching at my side for the last two days.
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