A Doctor is Jettisoned, A Family Practitioner Is Found
Dang!
Doncha wish you lived in the ’50s when this breakfast was considered good for you?
My grandmother used to make this sort of breakfast for my grandfather every day at 0400 before he went off to work.
My grandfather is now 90.
My grandmother lived to be 78.
Maybe cooking it is bad for your health, not eating it.
Of course, today we have other options.
Egg Beaters, turkey sausage.
But nothin’ beats real bacon. Crispy, mouth-watering bacon.
Accept no substitute!
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Thanks to all who commented that a Family Practitioner might be a good choice for my husband.
He has his first appointment with his new doctor in two weeks. Young doc, in his late 30s who is in a Family Practice with his wife! It’s a family practice in more ways than one.
Very happy to take on new patients and was recommended by the marketing manager of the hospital he is affiliated with.
I’m sticking with my internist, who I absolutely love, but should he retire, I’ll join my husband at the new place.
He will not be seeing the endocrinologist who has taken care of his diabetes for the last four months.
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I had a bad feeling when my husband was told at his last appointment that his endocrinologist, Dr. H, only wanted to deal with his diabetes.
Now how does one just deal with diabetes without dealing with lipids, cholesterol, blood pressure - basically the whole patient?
That was a red flag to me.
And then there was the prescription refill issue.
I will describe it. You tell me if I’m crazy.
- John travels for ten days to New York. We packed his daily med containers. He brings extra pills in their original bottles.
- Eight days into the trip, John realizes he won’t have enough Lopid or Metformin to last until he gets home.
- No problem, our Safeway calls the Rite Aid in New York. The prescriptions are transferred. When we need the next refill, they will get the scrips transfered back.
- Problem. Rite Aid only accept one refill, even though John had 3 additional refills on both meds. The prescriptions were removed from their system. Neither pharmacy can refill the prescriptions.
- Safeway calls Dr. H. He declines the refill request. He has strict refill policies, regarding when you can get refills and when you can call, etc. However in this case, John was stranded through no fault of his own.
- John is frantic he won’t get his medication. He calls Dr. H. and leaves a message, explaining the problem and noting that Dr. H probably did not understand the background. John is a lawyer, his call is calm and succinct.
- I am pissed. Not knowing that John has already called Dr. H., I call too, and leave a very, shall we say, adamant message that
- (1) not allowing my diabetic husband access to his medication is tantamount to holding him hostage to inflexible refill rules and
- (2) as far as I am concerned, is damn close to patient abandonment.
Being a nurse, I have very little tolerance for what I perceive as physician arrogance.
Dr. H never calls either one of us back.
When I am at Safeway pharmacy for my meds two days later, the pharm tech notes that Dr. H called in just enough pills to get John to his next appointment. Not one more, not one less.
Think there is a control issue here?
Dr. H, in the words of the inimitable Donald Trump, on September 14, 2006 you will be fired by your patient.
An endocrinologist who is not willing to care for the whole patient is not an endocrinologist he needs to see. Having to fight for metformin is inexcusable. All those pamphlets you threw at us during the first visit, while extremely informative do not pass for medical care.
John will see, instead, a Family Practice physician who can take care of all his medical needs in one office and see him as a whole person, not just as his latest A1C.
Should an endocrinologist be needed in the future, we will obtain a referral from his new doctor.
And by the way, your reputation is well known, and while you may be a very good doctor, your inflexibility is inexcusable.
We won’t be adding any sparkling anecdotes to your legacy.
Karen
September 9, 2006 at 1:23 am
I am appalled. That is what passes for medical care these days?
I do hope that things work out better with the new Family Practice physician - please keep us posted.
Mary Lu
September 9, 2006 at 1:27 pm
No you are not crazy.
If the situation had happened in this house, I would have said and done the same thing.
Unflexible docs who one take care of one thing, refusing to look at the total patient seriously scare me.
Specialists who work with and talk to my primary doc are a total joy! (I have two of those right now!)
It’s funny when both of them get on the phone with you at one time. It’s like having pair of “father figures” in my case.
OH yes, and my Pharm.D. hubby, said the Safeway pharmacists screwed up.
Are we having fun yet?
AEnodia
September 9, 2006 at 9:29 pm
We travel and need to get our prescriptions filled in many different places throughout the year. My husband is now insulin dependent. We get our prescriptions filled at Walgreens as their computer is nationwide so we can go to any Walgreens and get his prescriptions filled without going through the transfer routine. We have looked at other pharmacies but none of them have the convenience. Some branches are better than others even in the same city.
All his care has been through our Family Practitioner and a Diabetes Nurse Educator.
Brox
September 11, 2006 at 4:03 am
After reading still hope that there many more understandable doctors. Childish PV may be.
emmy
September 11, 2006 at 3:01 pm
You are not crazy; the endocrinologist is. What was he thinking? He’s probably going to kill a few of his patients.
Tess
September 14, 2006 at 8:15 am
Glad you got rid of your specialist with the God complex. That type of behavior should not be allowed. Good luck with new doc.
Mary
September 23, 2006 at 1:26 pm
The food your grandparents ate was not laced with preservatives and fillers and MSG. It was real food. Unadultrated good stuff!! Unfortunately, even turkey sausage has nitrates in it that is bad for you. It’s time to move to the country and become self sufficient.
Megan
October 7, 2006 at 12:09 pm
I see an endocrinologist. I wear an insulin pump. My family physician is great, and I love her, but I she doesn’t want to deal with my diabetes. And I can’t blame her. An insulin pump has complex settings I can’t expect her to understand in the depth an endocrinologist can.
That being said, I love my endocrinologist. I would see my family physician if I could for everything. But that’s not realistic, and that’s why we have specialists. But my area of the country is lacking in endocrinologists. It’s a pretty rare specialty. And the first 2 I saw were horrible. Beyond what you describe as horrible. They would order blood work (cause that’s the cool thing for doctors to do!) and not even know how to interprut the results. I started asking the results be sent to me and reading up on the meanings myself. It was ridiculous.
I love my current endocrinologist. He worries about my lipids, my bp, even my asthma. And he gives me copious amounts of refills and writes my prescription for insulin for more than I actually need. The CDE and RD there are also great. But one thing he won’t do is call in scripts, unless it were an emergency (I suspect this would count as an emergency). I see him every 3 months, and am expected to get enough scripts then. I understand they don’t have time to be on the phone all the time, but it can definitely be an inconvience.
It sounds like your hubby has a good doctor, and I hope it goes well with him.
A Matter of Trust // Scared to Health
October 27, 2006 at 11:31 am
[...] Remember the mess with the medications that had me so fired up? [...]
Surgeon in my dreams
December 29, 2006 at 10:36 pm
We’ve run into the same thing. Our family doc is an internist. He refuses to treat hubbys pain issues and his thyroid issues. The endocrinologist will only treat the diabetes and the thyroid problem. So basically what we’re doing right now, until his insurance runs out in March, is seeing the pain doc, the endocrine doc and the family doc for the little incidental sinus, chest cold and other minor stuff.
Who can afford all these different docs. Each one reuires separate appointments, which means more times leaving work to go to this one or that. Rediculous.