I had an annual physical appointment this morning. There I had a very uncomfortable experience from my physician.
As a matter of fact, my day started with nice people.
At the check-in counter, I double-checked with the receptionist this was for an annual physical, not for a debate’s checkup. The receptionist confirmed she got it right. She was nice and polite. She treated me with respect.
When a nurse escorted me to a small individual room, I also emphasized the nurse about same thing. She politely told me the doctor changed it to a diabetes checkup. I explained the nurse the reason why I chose an annual physical, not a diabetes checkup. My insurance company fully covers an annual physical, but does not cover a diabetes checkup. I mentioned about the amount difference between those two appointments.
The nurse carefully listened to me and told me she totally understood what I said. She had a similar insurance policy with mine, and had experienced to receive an unexpectedly high charge for a regular checkup, which was not covered by the insurance policy. So, she said she would talk to the doctor and change the appointment reason to my preferred one.
So far so good. I encountered with a nice receptionist and a nice nurse.
***
However, my good feeling chain was abruptly cut off by the physician.
Followed by a couple of rough knocking on the door, the female physician entered the room with an arrogant attitude.
Normally the first thing a doctor will do is to greet with a patient. It usually accompanies with a handshake. But this physician skipped this process. Her face expression was obviously mad.
At first I didn’t know if she was mad at me or for some of her private reasons. I greeted politely to the physician with a nice smile on my face.
The physician didn’t greet at me. She didn’t even smile back to me. Instead, to my surprise, she started yelling at me. She was mad at me because I didn’t come see her for a regular diabetes checkup last year. My last visit was last April. She yelled at me saying all the negative things one after the other. I could sense the physician was mad, not because she cared for me, but because I didn’t follow her order. She wanted me to be her “Yes-person“. She was terrible and horrible for threatening me and planting many negative seeds of all the concerns and worries.
I stayed calm and asked her to change this appointment to an annual physical, politely with the reason. Then, she finally and reluctantly changed her plan from a diabetes checkup to an annual checkup.
While the doctor’s visit, she asked me a whole bunch of questions by simply reading all the questionnaires on her ipad screen. All this visit time, she never looked at my face. She stared at the ipad screen and typed my answers.
Whenever I asked about my health-related questions, she cut me off. She said she could not answer any of my questions. Otherwise she would have to charge the consultation separately.
I was all exhausted by her negative attitudes and words by the time of the doctor’s visit was done.
***
Finally the physician left from the room, and in return, the nice nurse escorted me to lab test waiting room.
There, I was greeted by a tall old man. He was a patient waiting for his lab turn before me. His friendly smile and kind energy embraced me and somewhat healed my bad experience from the physician.
After the tall old man was called and went into the lab room, a new patient came into the lab waiting room. It was a woman who was probably in her early 60s. Same as the previous male patient, she gave me her friendly smile. I smiled back to her. We briefly introduced each other and started a short conversation. She and her husband moved from Washington State to this area two years ago. Both of them like this area very much. When I was about to tell her about my story, I was called to enter the lab. Right before I left the waiting room, we held hands and thanked each other for a nice conversation.
At the lab room, I was warmly welcomed by a lab technician. I have known this female lab technician for these several years. She is always polite. Among all she is really good at poking a needle. I don’t need to suffer from the pain. While she was drawing my blood, I casually asked the lab technician if I could ask her some private advice. She said she was willing to do anything she could help me. So I mentioned I just had an uncomfortable experience from my doctor and if I had anybody to leave a feedback. The technician recommended me to talk to the office manager. The manager is the top authority in this clinic. She is sincere and willing to listen any comments and feedback. And she has authority to change any bad behavior of the workers.
***
After the lab test, I went back to the main office and asked for the office manager. I didn’t need to wait for long. Soon, a young woman escorted me to the office manager’s office.
The young woman was a secretary of the office manager. She introduced me to the office manager. My first impressions about these two women were great. I instantly felt I could trust them.
I shared my request about my physician with them.
I want my physician to treat me with respect. I need positive encouragements from my physician. I used to see the male physician in this clinic. He was the best physician ever in this country. He always encouraged me and told me everything would be fine. He always gave me helpful tips to maintain good health. With his advice I regained my good health. Unfortunately he left the clinic for his private reason. I miss him a lot.
The two managements agreed with me. They both respected him and liked him. Many of his patients miss this male physician too.
My current female physician was assigned to me as a replacement of my favorite male physician. The current female physician does the total opposites from my favorite physician. She threats me by saying all the negative things.
With my request, the two managements changed my physician to a young and nice female physician. They both believe this young female physician will be equally great as my favorite male physician.
Also, they both promised me that they would do their bests to make their clinic a better place, so that no patients will be treated badly anymore.
***
Now that I am back at home, I am in the safe and peaceful state as always. I thought back of my experience at the clinic of today.
Even though I had a bad experience from the doctor, I still should not forget that I was surrounded by nice people. Starting from the check-in counter receptionist, the nurse, and a male patient and a female patient whom I encountered in the lab waiting room, to the office manager and her secretary. Everybody, except for the physician, was nice.
I feel those nice people were sent by my family spirits in order to protect me and support me. I feel my family spirits’ enormous love to me all the time. With their constant love, I am always fine.
I believe today’s incident happened for a reason. Perhaps it happened because I still need to practice on speaking up whenever needed. Little by little, I am getting better on speaking up. I am getting better on expressing my truth and feeling.
♬ Any feedback? (^^♪
three wisdom 