"Hello, I'm Emmy, Lizzie's mother; she's one of Dr. N's patients. She started running a fever last night and woke up this morning with joint pain. Now she's complaining that her sinus drainage is green. Can I get an appointment for her to be seen?"
"I'm sorry all the daytime appointments are taken. I'll have to put you through to Judy for an evening appointment."
"Ok, thanks"
The phone rings three times and the voice messaging system picks up "You've reached the nurse line. If you are calling for an appointment please leave your name, the name and spelling of your child, your child's birthdate and a number where you can be reached in the next two hours. If you don't hear from us in two hours please call the office back."
Great, voicemail tag. "Hello, this is Emmy, Lizzie's mother; she's a patient of Dr N. She started running a fever last night and woke up this morning with joint pain. Now she's complaining that her sinus drainage is green. I was told that I need to speak to someone about getting an evening appointment. Lizzie's birthdate is 02/02/92. Please give me a call at 555-555-5555."
"Hello. This is Emmy, I'm a patient of Dr. S. I had a mammogram and an ultrasound on Wednesday. The ultrasound showed two new masses that Dr. S. wants to follow up on in three months. I was wondering if there is a reason that we don't just do a biopsy on them and find out what they are now?. Please give me a call at 555-555-5555. Again I'm Emmy, my birthdate is 08/08/58 and I can be reached at 555-555-5555."
"Hello. Brown Communications, this is Emmy"
"Hello Emmy, this is Nell from Dr. N's office, what's going on?"
"Lizzie started running a fever last night and woke up this morning with joint pain. Now she's complaining that her sinus drainage is green. I was told that I need to speak to someone about getting an evening appointment."
"How high is her fever?, when did this start?"
My thermometer is about as accurate as my bathroom scale, and what difference does it make? They always take it in the office anyway. "I didn't take her temp, she just felt very warm to..."
"And this started when? Does she have a cough or a sore throat?"
"The fever started last night. I didn't notice..."
"A sinus infection usually starts with a cold, we've been seeing a lot of strep. Does she have a sore throat?"
"She didn't mention..."
"We have to know this if we're going to make an appointment. Is she there?"
"No, I'm at work. She's at..."
"Well we need to know this."
"That's ok, I'll just take her to the Urgent Care place tonight after I get home."
Click.
I can't believe she hung up on me! And after she'd been aggressively interrupting during the entire conversation. How unprofessional can you get? And this isn't the first time she's been this way. A month or so ago she was overbearingly rude to me when I called to get a referral to an allergist after Lizzie had a bad reaction to some food she'd eaten.
Jim has been my children's pediatrician for decades. I dated him in high school. Now I don't want to call his office anymore because I'll have to deal with that woman. In a few years Lizzie will be to old for pediatric care. I don't want to have to change doctors now.
"Hello. Brown Communications, this is Emmy."
"Hello Emmy, this is Jennifer from Dr. S. office. You had a question about a procedure?"
"Hi Jennifer. When I had my mammogram and ultrasound on Wednesday the ultrasound showed two new masses. Dr. S wants me to come back in three months for a follow-up. I was wondering why we don't just go ahead and do a biopsy and find out what this is?"
"The masses are very small. If we biopsy them now we won't be able to tell what they are. If we keep an eye on them and they aren't growing you really don't have anything to worry about, but if they are growing we will have enough tissue to tell what it is."
But in the mean time I have cancer in my body again...or still.
