Playing Catch Up in More Ways than One

So I've been a bit busy and technically this post is being written nearly two weeks late--as will the rest of the posts until I catch up to current time. Fortunately, I can still do a semi-chronicle timewise as this blog allows me to select a date for my post (I supposed I could technically post for a time before my birth--wouldn't that be eerie, or perhaps just silly).

Anyway, on to events that actually happened on June 2.

My daughter had her swimming lesson at 9:30, as usual. My doctor's appointment was for 8:50 am, and I knew that even if it was quick, I would be challenged to make the 40-minute drive to her lesson and get her to class on time. Fortunately, I'm pretty good friends with the instructor, who lives just a mile from us, so I had arranged in advance to drop off my daughter at the instructor's house at 8:00 am.

I went back home, showered, dressed, and off to the doctor, arriving 15 minutes early (as requested) for my appointment. Here's the timeline of that appointment.

8:35 I arrive, check in, and pay my co-pay. They send me upstairs to wait.

8:50 My appointment should be starting. I'm still waiting.

9:10 (20 minutes after appointment start time) The nurse calls me in, weighs me, measures me, takes my blood pressure, temperature, and tells me the doctor will be right with me. An interaction of possibly 2 minutes.

9:25 Since my daughter's swimming lesson will be ending in 35 minutes, it is time for me to leave or she will be left sitting alone on the side of the pool. Disgusted as it is now 35 minutes past my appointment time, I pick up my purse and step out the door. The doctor happens to be right there and jokes, "Are you trying to sneak away?" I explain that I have to go pick up my daughter and she tells me it will be just a few minutes and proceeds with me back into the exam room (I figure I can't get my copay back anyway).

9:28 With a diagnosis of "sciatica" I try to follow the doctor out of the exam room as I really need to leave. She tells me I have to wait for the nurse, who will be bringing my papers. For some dumb reason, I stay.

9:35 I attempt to leave, but am caught by the nurse who is just leaving the room of the patient next to me. Despite me telling her about the urgency of needing to leave, she tells me I HAVE to wait and it will just be a moment.

9:40 I get my papers and RUN out. (Total of 65 minutes at Kaiser, only 5 of which was spent with medical personnel) The only good components to this are that the doctor has ordered an MRI and another round of physical therapy.

10:15 I arrive at my daughter's swimming lesson. Some other kind parent had dressed her and she was sitting in a chair at the side of the pool.

Fuming over the amount of time sucked out of my day by the doctor's office, I called my husband and we decide to switch insurance carriers at the next opportunity. In the meanwhile, we make lunch plans.

We had lunch at Red Robin and then my daughter and I headed off to our Naturopath, who is also my daughter's Pediatrician. She had her well-child checkup (everything is good and she's finally a little bit onto the growth chart). I also had my lovely annual exam, but also got to talk to the doctor about what's been going on with my back. She too disagreed with the sciatica diagnosis but was pleased to hear about the MRI and PT. I spent two hours with my fantastic Naturopath--one hour for my daughter and one for me. We pay out of pocket, but it is worth every penny and we have forgone other things to ensure we can go to her because her care is so good, thorough, and helpful.

I took the two dogs for a short walk. It's funny having two ends of the spectrum of breeds of dogs: a Golden Retriever, known to be a tolerant family dog, and a Doberman, known more as a protective, defensive dog. This Doberman is so meek that she makes our Golden look aggressive--yet people are instantly cautious, if not downright fearful around her.