The Long, Boring Story

Here is what has been happening around here, in chronological order:

--A week ago Thursday, K went to the walk-in clinic to be checked out because of his cough.

--He was told he had a viral-thing that is going around and it will go away on its own.

--He ALSO was told his blood pressure was VERY high and needed to see a primary care physician ASAP. He hasn't seen his PCP--who is also MY PCP--in eight years. The physician's assistant gave him a prescription for BP meds.

--Friday at 7:30am I called the dr's office to set up an appointment for him--NOT because he couldn't do it himself, but because I was awake! :) They said the dr would be given the notes and reports from the walk-in clinic and decide from there what is to be done.

--At 9:00am the PA called from the walk-in clinic to say the lab results showed some possible kidney problem and he needed to be seen right away by a PCP. He said he would call the dr's office and get them moving along.

--At 2:30pm, a half hour before the dr's office closes for the weekend, the PA called to say that K needed to come in and sign papers so that his reports could be sent to the dr's office.

--Not realizing that the dr's office closed early on Friday, K didn't go to sign the papers until 3:30--not that it would have made any difference if he went any earlier, I believe.

--Through the weekend, I monitored his BP and the meds were helping--his pressure was elevated but not at the terribly high levels they had been. His pulse rate came down, also.

--HOWEVER, MY pressures went up--higher than they had ever been--because of the stress.

--I went for my physical on Monday and the second the nurse saw me, she began explaining what was going on. The dr wanted K to see a nephrologist first to see what was going on with his kidneys and THEN he would see K and do a complete physical to rule out any other problems. She told me to make the appointments on the way out and she would tell them at the appointment desk that I would do so.

--My physical went about the way I expected: I'm fairly healthy despite the chronic problems I have--blood pressure, thyroid, weight issues. I got the same old, same old 'diet and exercise' routine, which I was expecting. I will be having more lab work in two weeks to look at my thyroid and make sure my anemia is fine. Of course, he went crazy when he saw my BP--and I let him know it was because of the stress I was under because of K's health. I needed him to know that I wasn't happy over the lack of progress in getting appointments for him. (I don't believe the dr had a clue that there weren't appointments in place.) He prescribed a BP med--an ACE-inhibitor. A year ago I went off--with his okay--of the beta-blocker I had been on for years, and I had been doing VERY well until this stress-induced problem. He wanted me to try this 'new' (for me) drug.

--To make sure things get even MORE screwed up, when the nurse came in to give me my flu shot, she told me the nephrologist in the office who is actually taking new patients wouldn't be able to see K for two weeks, so she would talk to the dr and see if he could move things along, so I didn't need to make appointments--they would call me.

--The nurse called me at 5:30--the office staff had already left--and said the dr said to get the earliest appointments possible: he would see K first and get started on the lab work, etc, that the nephrologist would need. The scheduler would call me the next day as the computers were off for the night.

--Tuesday at 9:00am, the scheduler called and told K--he answered the phone--that his appointments were this: nephrologist on November 13 and PCP on December 7. EXCUSE ME! THIS is getting him in to see someone ASAP!!!!

--Tuesday afternoon I called and spoke to the nurse and asked WHAT WERE WE TO DO NOW! She said she would get back to me after talking to the dr.

--After 15 minutes--they are getting back to me sooner--she said the dr wanted K to keep the scheduled appointments and to have his BP checked in the office before he came in to see the nephrologist. I guess they figured he wasn't dying by looking over his numbers that I gave them. And, yes, the meds seem to be doing their job very well--his BP is in perfectly acceptable levels. Okay, so that is taken care of--NOT to my satisfaction, but what can I do?

--Then, of course, on Wednesday night, I begin to feel as if I have a stomach bug. This continued through Thursday. I slept for most of the day--except for the trips to the bathroom. Couldn't eat much because of the stomach pains and I was completely exhausted.

--Friday I put my game-face--or mother-face--on and pulled myself up by my bootstraps and willed myself to do the laundry and cleaning that needed doing. As a mother, I learned early on that I could only wallow in an illness for only so long. I got through Friday with a lot of help from Pepto-Bismol tablets! :) I was pretty sure I had gotten over the worst of the stomach bug.

--Woke up today and guess what? I'm STILL feeling just as lousy! So, I figured I better investigate. I now am pretty sure I DON'T have a bug, but what I am experiencing is side-effects of the BP meds. Oh happy day. Now I have to call the dr's office on Monday morning and see if he will change my prescription--I just hope he won't tell me that these are symptoms that will pass in time and that I just need to hang in there! I think the office will be installing caller-ID just so they can screen for MY phone calls.

So there is the long story made even longer. Boring, I know.

Now, as for what is going on in the dr's office: I don't think it is my PCP's fault. Several years back, he and his partners sold their practice to the local hospital, so they are now employees of the practice. Granted, they are very high level employees, but I don't think they have nearly as much say-so in how the practice is run as some people would think. (I mentioned something to my dr about the office not faxing a prescription for me--against office policy--and he was shocked that that was the case!) So, I really believe he has very little say-so in the scheduling of appointments. My guess is that the office personnel want to leave AT 5:00pm and not a minute later--they probably don't get over-time pay. I came to this conclusion the last time I tried to pay my co-pay on the way out of the office: it was 5:15pm, the receptionist was sitting at the desk with her coat on, and she told me to forget paying, that they would bill me. I have let them bill me ever since. SOOOOOO, I guess appointments are never made that could possibly go beyond 5:00pm.

The other problem we have here is this: we have only two internal medicine practices in town. If you leave one practice and are not happy with the other one, you are left with the Family Care doctors--who happen to be residents that leave the area after their two year rotations! Not exactly good for someone--like me--who takes a long time to get used to a new doctor! So until something VERY HORRIBLE goes on with our dr, I guess we will keep on keeping on. It just isn't good for my stress level!

I worry about K's health, of course, but NOT because he has had problems in the past! My worry comes from the fact that he is no longer 25 (or 30 or 35...) and he has a family history--mother and father--of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, early heart attack, and heart-related problems. I know he doesn't want to face these facts, but I am not going to let him ignore the facts any longer. However, he IS feeling very well, so I am trying not to worry too much.