On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?

Warning: Excessive ranting follows.

I’ve been sick since before Mardi Gras. Since the last week in February. It got really bad when I got home on March 1 and I went to the doctor. I couldn’t see my regular doctor, so I saw some old guy in the same office instead.

At my first mention that I went home to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, he quit being friendly with me and gave me the “Well that’s what you get for going to participate in that sort of thing” treatment. I’ve gotten this a few times before, most notably my old boss at a contracting company which formerly employed me. This doctor prescribed some antibiotics and some cough medicine and sent me home. Not once did he ask if I was exposed to any mold, fungus, or who-knows-what-else while I was in New Orleans. Not once did he ask about my family, even after I told him my parents lived in New Orleans.

I chaulked up the shoddy service to this guy being an asshole and took the antibiotics.

The cough never went away.

So I went back to the doctor, a month later. This time I was able to get an appointment to see my regular doctor. Calling her my regular doctor is funny, since I have only seen her once before, one year ago. Since then I have seen two other doctors at the same office, but never the doctor listed on my insurance card as my primary care physician.

I walked in and went to the check-in desk. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: Hi, I’m hear to see Dr. X.

Recptionist: Hi, I see you were hear at the beginning of the month to see Dr. Y.

Me: Yes, I haven’t gotten any better since then.

Receptionist: So what are you in for today?

Me: (louder) I just said I haven’t gotten any better since the last time I came in.

At this point, she got offended. I really didn’t care. She wasn’t listening to me anyway.

She had me fill out a little form with details of my symptons and told me to give it to the nurse when they called me. I filled out the form thusly:

Symptons:

Persistent cough (since March 1!)

Chest pains

Sinus congestion

Sleeplessness to due cough

I sat down, and the nurse called me in after 30 minutes. She weighed me (196 lbs, baby!) and led me to the exam room. She looked at the paper I gave her, and asked me what was wrong. I told her, just like it was written down, with more details and mentioned that I had already been in once for this, and that I was still sick one month later and I was a bit concerned for my health. When I mentioned that the chest pains particularly made me nervous, she asked:

Nurse: On a scale from 1 to 10, how do you rate your pain?

Me: I don’t understand that question.

Nurse: 10 being the highest, how would you rate your pain?

Me: I need a frame of reference. What would a 10 be on that scale?

Nurse: The worst.

Me: What is the worst? I don’t understand. My chest hurts, its sharp, and its above my heart.

Nurse: Here’s a chart.

She pointed to a bar chart that looked like this. (I wish I had brought my camera, but I didn’t, so my recreation will have to do)

I still didn’t get it. The number scale doesn’t correspond to the question asked in the graph. I asked what the worst pain was, to give me a reference point. Was it someone sawing my foot off? She rolled her eyes and said the doctor would be in soon.

A half and hour later, the doctor came in. She asked me what I was in for. I told her the whole thing again. Apparently, she hadn’t read my file yet and the doctors in this office don’t talk to one another. She looked at my file and saw what the other doctor prescribed. She told me she was presecribing a stronger antibiotic this time. I asked her about the chest pain. She said I shouldn’t worry about that. All she had done was listened to my lungs with the stethoscope, looked at my throat and ears, and felt my lymph nodes.

She never once asked about what sort of environmental things I could have been exposed to in New Orleans. She didn’t ask me about smoking, which I know was written in my chart from the first time I saw her. I asked her if this infection was the same one as the first time, or was it new. She didn’t know, and didn’t seem to concerned.

Inside I’m screaming I HAVE BEEN SICK FOR ONE ENTIRE MONTH.

I ask her if I should be concerned that I have been sick for so long. She tells me to take these antibiotics and we’ll see what happens. She obviously is done with me, and moves for the door.

I tell her I haven’t been able to sleep due to the cough. She tells me to take Tylenol PM. I can’t take that and function the next day. She gives me some samples of Lunestra and heads for the door. I’m not done. I have questions about my health and the drugs she’s pushing on me.

Will I be able to take this new cough medicine at work, because I certainly couldn’t function on the other stuff? “Oh sure!” (when I get home, I notice the label says “May couse drowsiness” and I can’t concentrate today).

Will I be able to get up the next day on these sleeping pills? “Oh sure!” (I woke up well-rested this morning, true, but in the worst mood of my life.) She didn’t even mention the whole “make sure you can get 8 hours of sleep” warning Lunestra plasters all over their commercials.
She gets up to leave again. I ask her about my ears, how they are always congested. The antibiotics will clean that right up, she says. And she’s gone.

I realize that I can be a real asshole sometimes. Maybe that’s written on my chart. I wouldn’t blame them. But that is no excuse to not listen to me, not take the time to explain anything to me, and make me feel like I am wasting their time simply by being there paying them money.

And the people that know me wonder why I say I have no faith in the medical profession.