AWOL Psychiatrist
2007-02-21
Today I hauled myself out of bed 20 minutes early because I knew I had a 9:00 appointment with the shrink who manages my meds. I have adult ADD and take strattera for it. No biggie, except that lately my dosage hasn't been helping, and I haven't been able to concentrate well enough to get through my work without getting extremely frustrated. I'd actually tried calling this doc about this issue two weeks ago. She didn't return my call, but I figured that was because I'd mentioned that it wasn't an emergency.
I have these appointments at a large, assembly-line style outpatient clinic. I register and pay for the appointment in one office on the ground floor, then go up to the fourth floor to check in for the appointment, then go up to the 5th floor to wait for my doctor. On my way up to the 4th floor, I bumped into one of my colleagues in the elevator (always uncomfortable, given that we're psychologists). When I finally made it to the 5th floor waiting room, an angry-looking guy was hanging out there. After a couple of minutes, he asked me "Are you here to see Dr. so-and-so?" Turns out, he was her 8:30 appointment, the doc hadn't shown up yet (it was already 9), and she'd missed their appointment the week before, too. Five minutes later, he stormed out of the waiting area, presumably to go downstairs to the check-in desk to complain.
About 15 minutes later, the secretary from the check-in desk came upstairs to find me. The doc had left town the week before because her mom was ill (which I'd known), and hadn't returned or checked in with her supervisor yet. The secretary promised that she'd try to get me into somebody else's schedule right away if I could wait. I went downstairs with her to wait in the 4th floor reception area. 20 minutes and a December issue of Time later, she came back and told me that nobody could see me today, and that the scheduler would set up another appointment for me with my regular doc or with another. That was definitely wishful thinking on the secretary's part, because the scheduler couldn't get me in with ANYBODY until March 14.
Yup, that's correct... 3 weeks, when I've been trying to get in touch with my regular doc for 2 weeks and know that I need a dosage change. 3 weeks, when I can hardly think straight long enough to read a full paragraph in one article from the pile of articles I need to digest to write my current paper. Yes, the current paper I will be presenting in front of who knows how many people at a conference at the end of March. Maybe I should also say at this time that it can take two weeks for Strattera to "kick in" (if it does at all), meaning that it's possible I'll be this scattered up until the day I have to give the paper. This means it's quite possible I *won't* be able to write it until then, or perhaps not even after.
The scheduler recommended that I call my doc again to see if she'll call in an increased dose over the phone, but I don't know how effective this will be given that she still hasn't returned my call from two weeks ago. I have left her a voice mail message already. I'm glad that I see my talking-shrink tomorrow, because she might have a better idea of what to do (unfortunately, the talking shrink can't prescribe me meds because she does CBT with me... I don't quite get the conflict but wish that there were a way around it). I can also try to call my PCP (primary care physician) but I'm not optomistic about her being so helpful.
Of course, I was outside of the building, across the street, and halfway down the next block by the time I remembered that I had to return to registration on the 1st floor in order to ensure that my insurance wasn't charged for this visit, and to get my $20 copay refunded to me. It was well after 10:00 before I made it in to my office, which is just a few blocks down the street.
I'm entirely disgusted with my local health care system and am pretty mad about the way they treat people in it. This is ridiculous...
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