Gotta tell ya, I really do not like this doctor. Never have. She's nice enough but hindsight is 20-20, and my hindsight slammed on the brakes so hard today that my seatbelt almost broke loose.
I get my Mom to her doctor--a very basic internist--who looks at Mom's breast and starts asking those really stupid questions: "How long has it been like this?" "Didn't you feel the lump?" "Couldn't you see that it looks different from the other one?" Gee Einstein, apparently the 84-year old woman, who is in a wheelchair, who can't turn her head to the right because 3 vertebrate in her neck are fused, who can't lift her right arm because of a frozen shoulder, who has horrible osteoporosis, COULDN'T AND DIDN'T SEE THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG!
Yes, you detect hostility from me. Why? Simple. It all comes down to hindsight. Out of the blue it dawned on me at that very moment that in the last 6 or 7 years this doctor had not once given my Mom a REAL physical! It was always a quick reading of her blood pressure, a listen to her lungs and heart THROUGH her shirt, and the ending question of "do you need any precriptions?" That was it. This doctor had NEVER once LOOKED at my Mom's body to see if anything might be going awry.
So yes, I'm angry. I'm pissed and I'm furious. Not only with the doctor for what could easily be turned into a case of medical negligence, but also because I didn't realize it sooner!
About 30 minutes later we were at an ultrasound appointment where Mom goes for her annual mammograms--right, the same place that never saw anything suspicious. And yes, the ultrasound detected a very large mass in Mom's right breast. The doctor there then spent the next 20 minutes trying to get my Mom's doctor (the one we just came from) on the phone--but of course, her number is busy. IT'S ALWAYS BUSY! Finally he said, "Drive over there right now and demand to be seen. I'll keep trying to call and you should also try to get through. If you do have her call me immediately."
So we drove back to the first doctor's office...and yes I got the nurse on the phone before we arrived and she acted like she didn't know who I was. (bitch) Needless to say, I pulled up at the office, wheeled my mother inside and was greeted with an "I'm so sorry" from the doctor. Essentially it was a full blown death sentence being pronounced! The next few moments were filled with more "I'm so sorries" and an appointment with a breast surgeon to do a biopsy the next afternoon. As we were leaving the doctor asks me if I want any meds for my nerves. I wanted to punch her dead in the face but I didn't. I simply said "No, I'm fine. I need to deal with this since no one else is." She didn't get the cynacism. Shocker.
No comments:
Post a Comment