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Lazy Saturdays

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I needed this.

This past week was so busy.  I had appointments everyday except for Wednesday, though I did go to work on Wednesday. I’m glad that I was able to just to a nice long dialysis run last night and lazy myself around my bedroom today.  I slept about 3 additional hours after eating breakfast.

I did not use my neti pot last night, but I did use my Avamys. I was fine overnight, but I woke up with a headache! I used my neti pot again this morning and will use it once again tonight during my bedtime routine.

Before I resume doing nothing, I just have to discuss an irritating moment that occurred earlier in the week during one of my clinic appointments. My appointment was scheduled for 10:45am, so I got to the clinic at 10:30am.  Much to my chagrin, 1pm had come and gone and I still had not been called yet.  I heard one of the women who worked at the clinic say to someone else that the clinic has booked TWICE as many people as they normally would.  WHYYYY?

I finally got called in shortly afterwards, knowing full well that I would probably be in the “smaller” waiting room for at least another 20-30 minutes. As time passed, a woman come into my room. It was a fellow.  I have to say..I’m usually pretty good with being okay with doctors who are learning and such, but the last thing I wanted to do was sit there and repeat my life story to someone who already had my life story written on the chart in their hand after I had been sitting there for more than two and a half hours!

She asked me questions and I responded with as few words as possible.  When she asked me which medications I was on…I almost lost it.  “You don’t have it written down there??” I asked.  She said “Yes, I just wanted to double check”.  I just stared at her.  She then went on the read what she had written down and I responded with “uh huh”‘s.

My actual doctor came in, said what she had to say, and I was done.  But, in this clinic, you don’t just go to the secretary/receptionist to get your appointment.  No.  You have to sit down in the waiting room AGAIN, and wait to be called AGAIN for your appointment.  In the past, what I’ve done is simply ask for my hospital card back and ask for the appointment to be sent to me in the mail. When I got to the desk, the volunteer there told me that my chart had not come out yet.  When I asked when it would come out, she said “i dunno…sorry” and resumed doing whatever she was doing.  I told her that I wanted my card back so I could leave and if they could please send me my next appointment in the mail. “Your chart hasn’t come out yet.”  Another receptionist pointed to another reception desk that was about 15 feet away. “Maybe your chart is over there with that receptionist”.  So I went “over there” where the other receptionist was.  As not to interrupt her, I stood there, waiting for her to look up.  Clearly ignoring me, I said excuse me.  She looked up and said “yes?”  I asked her if she had my chart.  She asked for my name which I gave to her. “No I don’t have it”.  I went back over to where the other receptionist desk was and waited.

I called my father to let him know that my appointment was finished and I was just waiting for my hospital card since he would be the one picking me up. After about 18-20 minutes, I went back to the receptionist’s desk. At the same moment that I got there, the 3 receptionists that were there started laughing as something; perhaps one of them told a joke.  A different volunteer receptionist was there this time.  I asked her if my chart had come out yet. She asked me my name so I told her.  This volunteer asked one of the receptionists, who was still laughing, if my chart had come out.  Then that receptionist looked at me and says (while waiving her hand at me in a “just wait a minute” fashion): “I have it right here! I’m doing it right now! We’re just laughing to try can calm down the stress!!!”

Excuse me? Is this lady talking to me?? She obviously thought that I had come up strictly because I saw them laughing and obviously that means that I felt like they should be doing less laughing and more working??

“Did I say that you weren’t allowed to laugh? My question was: has my chart come out yet.  It requires a simple YES or NO response”. The receptionist just looked at me briefly and looked down while resuming hacking away at her keyboard.  I hope my response to her let her know that she was out of line.

About a minute later she called me over and returned my hospital card and a sheet with my appointment on it (if they had been listening and communicating properly, they would have known that I wanted my appointment MAILED to me and I did NOT want to wait 25 minutes for it to be handed to me).

Man was I ever angry. Sometimes I feel like people think they can talk to me in any old rude way because I look like a child.  Yes, I look young, but not only am I NOT a child and I am NOT an idiot.  How very rude of that receptionist to assume that I was upset because they were laughing and therefore speaking to me in a rude and condescending fashion.  Also, this clinic was a hematology clinic full of cancer patients.  How insensitive is it for her to essentially YELL at me, telling me that they’re laughing in an attempt to relieve stress? Yes, that’s great, and I have nothing against relieving stress.  But if I’m at that desk waiting for an appointment, can it not be assumed that I might be a cancer patient? Did you ever consider that I may be under a certain amount of stress as well and the last thing I need or want it so be yelled at by the person who is making my next appointment?  Even if I don’t have cancer…I’m still obviously there because I have an illness or health problem of some sort. That’s stressful as well…so don’t raise your voice at ME, lady.

Ok,

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