Rant #4 - And the Misadventure Continues . . .

Were we lulled into compliance or were things really getting more under control?

Our last visit major disappointment came when we visited the Kidney Specialist. He reinforced our discovery that most doctors, especially specialists, were not inclined to understand the concept of communicating.
As we sat anxiously in his office to find out if, what we were doing, was actually achieving anything. He walked into the office with a file; sat down at his desk; opened the file; and told us he would see us again in six months! 

WHAT! 

 Nothing about how things were going or whether we were on the right track or . . . anything.
We were so shocked that we could not even remember what questions we wanted to ask.
Finally I managed to blurt out “What are the test scores? What do they mean?” I commented that when we saw him last he said Fred’s kidneys were functioning at a 18% level. His comment was “I didn’t say that!”
We both remembered that . . . but neither of us could see any advantage to questioning what he said.
Again, he may be a very competent doctor BUT how would you ever know?
Blood-letting (drawing blood) continues at the Lab, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly to monitor the INR levels that regulate the blood thinner levels and the conflict still arises as to who calls us with the results.
We had thought that because the one doctor was the specialist, it was reasonable to get the results from his office and so chose that option.
For a while, both offices called us (the Specialist AND the office of the GP). Then the call came only from the Specialist’s office; then the GP’s office called wondering why they were not getting the Lab reports.
Apparently, the Lab no longer sends results to the GP but they are recorded on the network.
Oh, I did have a major clash with the nurse about getting the results and getting an on-going OK from the doctor to share the results.
On our next visit, I did ask the doctor about getting the results of the tests. His comment was that he has too many patients to do that.
Okay!
I did ask him who the system was set up for, the patients or the doctors.
His answer to the question was not forthcoming so we did not wait for an answer.

Doctor's Rules Reign!

On June 28^th – Fred retired the on-going Home Care Workers.

Ya-Hoo!