Zilch: The Amount of Patience I Have Today
I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. Today’s letter is Z!
The past few days, I have not been feeling well. After my 5k on Sunday (where I took first place in my age division — woot!), I started feeling weird. Somewhere around 4 am on Monday morning, I felt like someone was setting small fires to my throat. I stumbled around the room in the dark searching for Ibuprofen and throat lozenges just to get me to my normal wake-up time.
Fast forward to today, and I just don’t feel so great. I was sure that I had strep throat. I am a mother of three with a degree in English. I have read lots of books (fiction and non-fiction) that include tons of medical jargon. Ergo, I am pretty much a doctor. So, I was certain I was going to leave the doctor with a prescription to magically make me feel better.
Image courtesy Michal Marcol/
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As I am rarely sick, I don’t have a regular family practitioner. The kids go to our local pediatrician (we adore her), but Aaron and I just don’t have any where that we call our primary doctor. In the past, I’ve just run up to the Urgent Care place to get some help.
After the Animal was born, I had a sickness similar to this one. I used our local family practice to find out what was wrong. But that was almost three years ago. Since that visit, that doctor’s practice left and was replaced with another practice. I was under the impression that this new doctor would have my files. Made sense. So, I called.
After almost thirty minutes on the phone — the first test of my patience — the receptionist made an appointment for me for today. I got there five minutes early to make sure I would have enough time to fill out paperwork. Twenty-five minutes after I was sitting there, someone finally acknowledged my presence. I started working on the papers, and they called my name again. This time, I was asked to go through the exit door to talk to one of the people who worked there.
He informed me that it was not their “responsibility” to keep up with the files from the previous doctor and that the physician could not see me today but could see me tomorrow. I was livid. What was the point of my almost-30 minute phone call and then almost-30 minute wait time if they weren’t going to let me be seen?
I walked out (after asking him to shred the documents). Once I hit the parking lot, I just started crying. This day had royally blown chunks (TMI?), and now I was in for a twenty minute — at minimum — drive to the Urgent Care facility.
No worries, I thought. They are so good about being quick. After all, when Miss Sassy Pants broke her wrist, we were in and out of there.
Wrong.
I ended up with an almost hour-long wait.
But at least they acknowledged me and were very nice to me.
And for the record? No strep. Just a virus. I have to let it take its course. Because I have patience for that.
