On 15-Nov-2006,

flaviaR@verizon.net writes:

flaviaR@verizon.net writes:

I will tell the nurse at my health-care providers *immediately*!
Thank you!
Can you send me a cite reference that I can send them,
just so they know I'm not just goofball?

How could they _ever_ think that about you? <whistling innocently>

Yeah! Most of them think I'm a full-blown nutcase! :-)
(Actually, the only story I have about them is rather nasty in that
regard....)

Tease!

G-d forbid I should get calledthat - but I figured I should let people ask
rather than just dump it on everyone.

It's another pregnancy story
(Run now while you can!)

As someone you may remember, I had hyperemesis, and ended up on
home IV while the doctor dithered as to what to do with me, and the
advice nurse to whom the front desk insisted on shunting me whenever
I called nurse threw out "helpful" suggestions like "ginger tea (Yes, Josh,
I know!) " and "papaya extract", all of which only aggravated my nausea.
I was feeling almost as if my primary doctor in the practice had just
automatically thrown up his hands and said "Oh, gee, I can't deal with it!"
and I started to see other doctors. I had to time my apppointments
carefully because I could only be off the IV for short periods.

So, one afternoon, the Hubby (tm) comes home early from work, we
unhook me, he did his usual half-carry out to the car and we got to see
one of the other doctors. So I'm sitting there cradling my arm with the
portal because the stupid thing never did stop hurting, telling yet another
doctor my symptoms and I ask "Is there any way I can make it clear to
the front desk staff that when I'm calling, I'm not just whining about a
nasty hangnail or something?"

And she looks down her nose at me and sniffs, "No, because every
patient thinks her problems are more important than anyone else's."
Meaning, of course, me.

I gaped at her, but luckily, I caught sight of the Hubby (tm). From the
look on his face, if I had said what I was thinking ("How many OTHER
patiets you got with an IV portal sticking out of their arms because they
CAN'T EVEN DRINK WATER?" *), or, indeed, anything at all, he was
going to pop her one (He's from Brooklyn).

But punchline was that, while she didn't even bother to listen to any
more, she did write out 2 separate prescriptions and a told us about
an over the counter antacid to supplement the other 2. Which got me
off the IV that afternoon.

The aftermath to this was that when I told the doctor who didn't seem
to want to prescribe *anything* what the other doctor had said, he was
*appalled*, & told me to tell the front desk that HE said that if I wanted
to talk to him, I was to be put through immediately. Or what passed for
imemdiately with them :-)

So, while no one is perfect, you can sometimes juggle people together
to get it :-)

Suzy

(* Punchline #2: this is EXACTLY what my mother said when I told her
the story!)

Moshe Schorr
It is a tremendous Mitzvah to always be happy! - Reb Nachman of Breslov
The home and family are the center of Judaism, *not* the synagogue.
Disclaimer: Nothing here necessarily reflects the opinion of Hebrew
University