I had a doctor appointment a couple
of days ago as a six-week follow-up. Now,
I really like my doctor. These days, it’s
hard to find a decent general physician (GP) and I lucked out with this
one. I’ll refer to him as Dr. M. My appointment was set for 10:50. I was a minute, maybe two late due to a train
and in this town, it’s not unheard of. I
sat in the waiting room for ten minutes, tops.
I thought to myself, “Okay, he’s just running a few minutes late.” After being weighed (we all love that part of
the doctor visit, right?), I was taken to the exam room where the nurse asked
the usual questions and took my vitals.
She told me she would let the doctor know I was ready for him. I acknowledged her and sat in the room
patiently. Well, I was patient, but only
for the first half hour. Another twenty
minutes passed and I started having a panic attack. I was shaking, bouncing my legs up and down,
and then started to sob uncontrollably.
I grabbed my cell phone and texted my mom, who lives with my husband and
me. I told her what was going on, and
she said that I needed to let someone know what was going on with me. Finally, I worked up the courage to open the
door and find help. I looked up and down
the hallway, located the nurse’s station, and found the nurse who had left me
in the exam room. She could clearly see
the tears streaming down my face, the tear-soaked and wadded up Kleenex in my
hand, and that I needed help. The fact
that she could sense that I needed help didn’t seem to register on her
face. Between sobs, I asked her if there
was anything she could do and how much longer the wait would be for Dr. M to
show. She just looked at me,
people! I saw no concern on her face. Yes, I was emotional, but I was with it
enough to notice that she didn’t seem to care much about my predicament.
Now, here’s a question: are doctors
and nurses given training on dealing with mentally ill patients? Doesn’t it seem like a requirement? Even if it’s a GP’s office, they should have
some kind of protocol for dealing with mentally ill patients. After having a conversation about this with
my mom, I’m really wondering about the education they’re giving to today’s
nurses. Now, I understand that they’re
not to overreact to a patient having an anxiety attack, but they should at least
show concern, take the patient back to the room, maybe offer a cup of water,
and talk to the patient until the doctor is able to show. In my situation, the nurse didn’t seem to
know what to do or say to me except that she would see what she could do, but
remained standing in front of me unconcerned.
I stormed back to the exam room, left the door open, and continued to
try to calm myself down. The nurse walked by the room three times
without asking how I was doing or even letting me know how soon the doctor
would be there. When Dr. M finally
showed, he apologized for his running “a little” late, which was really an hour
and fifteen minutes. Like I said
earlier, I really like this doctor and because of that, I didn’t lay into him
for being late, because it wasn’t really his fault. I went about the visit like nothing had
happened and so did he.
Dr. M had referred me to a
psychiatrist around Indianapolis, which is an hour away from here. My first visit was an hour and I really liked
her. My second visit, which I had this
past Monday, was only fifteen minutes (remember, my drive is AN HOUR!). In this fifteen minutes, I managed to tell
her the changes I’ve had since she altered all my current meds I take for
depression/bipolar. One of the meds she
added was Seroquel. I was on it several
years ago and had a horrible reaction to it.
What I remember is that it made me feel like a zombie. I figured that since it had been so long
since I was on it, that I could give it another try. She wanted me to start on 100 mg. and work my
way up to 200 mg. The first three
mornings, after taking 100 mg., I felt like a zombie. My alarm clock would be going off for over an
hour before I finally managed to get up to take my dogs out to potty, which
they had already done in the living room (it’s a good thing there’s potty pads
in there, huh?). Even after being up for
a few hours, I still felt like a zombie.
All day, I felt like I could fall asleep anytime, anywhere. So, I shared my concerns about this med, and
then shared my mom’s concerns. Now, her
bedroom is across from mine, so she can hear what goes on in my room including
the bear-like snores at night. My
snoring had seemed to worsen since I started the Seroquel, and my sleep had
been so deep that I didn’t hear one of my pups squeal in the night because I had
rolled onto her. So, I told the
psychiatrist this. She simply told me to
not let the dogs sleep with me as though it would be easy for me to do. She doesn’t understand how I treat my dogs
like royalty. They are allowed to sleep
with me, and haven’t had to sleep in a crate or on the floor like other dogs
do. I told her that, and she said to me,
“Your sleep is my number one priority and the most important thing in the world
for you right now. There’s a reason you
see me, and managing your sleep habits is part of that.” I understand where she’s going, but it’s not
as easy as she seems to think.
Back to my Dr. M appointment. He agreed with some of my observations of the
psychiatrist, and that I should’ve started on a low dose of the Seroquel. Also, he didn’t care much for the fact that
she took me off of Lexapro, which I had been on for several years, so he added
it back to my regimen at 5 mg. When I
took the first dose, it felt as though my body had said, “It’s about damn time!” As a matter of fact, I think I made a similar
comment. After Dr. M shared a funny
story with me, which helped calm me down, I was able to drive myself home.
Am I wrong for being enraged for
this doctor visit? Remember, I’m not
enraged with Dr. M, himself, but with the fact that he was running late and the
idiot nurse, who didn’t seem to know what to do to help me. Do you, reader, know that doctors are being
told by their networks to not take any longer than 15 minutes with each
patient? If you’re a good doctor, you
take as long as the patient needs you to treat them. But the networks they work for aren’t as
understanding because they’re all about $$.
I used to work for a doctor’s office
that had two GPs, two behavioral health providers, and a lab that could take
blood and urine samples in-house. I love
this idea! I will talk more about this
concept in my next post, so please stay tuned.
Your comments would be appreciated
on this topic/issue. Until next time…
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