My family doctor works at a few different clinics, so that he can offer a variety of appointment times to his patients. Sometimes I’ll see him at a nine-to-five clinic, sometimes at a wellness centre which offers evening appointments.
That may not sound like a big deal to you, but in my area it’s almost unheard of. To see a physician outside of regular business hours, most people have to go to a walk-in clinic. There’s often a wait, and a patient is unlikely to see a healthcare professional they’ve already met.
This is true even when a patient visits the after-hours clinic of the medical centre at which they regularly see their own physician. These clinics usually won’t say which doctors are working on any given evening or weekend, so it’s not possible to try to see one’s own physician that way.
It wouldn’t be fair, or realistic, to expect family doctors to be available at all hours for their patients’ convenience, 24/7×365. Not in the type of urban environment in which I live. We’re far from the scenario of the Doc Martin television show, with townsfolk banging on the village doctor’s front door in the middle of the night for emergency situations!
Physicians have lives, and many – like my own physician – have young families; they don’t want to be working during all of their kids’ waking hours. My doctor actually loves children so much that he works one or two days a week at a pediatric clinic!
So I really appreciate that he finds a way to offer evening appointments. These were fantastic for me, when I was working full-time and long hours. Up until a few months ago, when my family and specialist physicians put me on medical leave due to my rare disease.
My next appointment with him was meant to be yesterday, at his day-time clinic. They had to cancel that appointment, so I instead saw him today at the evening clinic. That was a stroke of luck; I’ve never had a rescheduled appointment so quickly! It must be because of our summer vacation period, or because the forecast last night called for thunderstorms…
Whatever the reason, I was able to meet with him tonight. Each time I have an appointment with him, I arrive with all my recent test results, previous versions for comparisons, and any notes I’ve made about the test results. He told me once that this makes his job much easier, so I replied that it also makes my patient life much easier ‘-)
This time we had a few things to discuss. First we went over the report from my ambulatory blood pressure monitor. Luckily he’d only asked me to wear one of these for 24 hours, because it was very uncomfortable in our hot weather. It’s a blood pressure cuff, attached to a small data recording device which has to be carried around on a belt strap or around the neck.
This was to find out whether I should go back on anti-hypertensives, blood pressure medication. He’d wondered a few months back whether I’d have fewer symptoms of CRPS*, my rare condition, if we stopped these medications. To be clear, I don’t have high blood pressure, or he wouldn’t have suggested that I try a few months without these pills!
My blood pressure has been almost-high for a little while, and there’s a family history of heart disease, so we’d started the anti-hypertensives as a precaution. Without these medications, I started getting headaches again, and sometimes heard a rushing sound in my ears. From using my own at-home blood pressure cuff, I know that this happens when my blood pressure goes temporarily higher.
So we agreed that I’d start back on these medications. Then it was time to discuss the next health issue. My rare autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory disease. Not because there had been any change, but because the group insurance company had asked that he fill in yet another form.
When I was receiving short-term disability payments, he had to fill out a medical questionnaire form just about every month. At that point, I’d still hoped to be able to return to my dream job, but that’s not what happened. You can read my July 2 blog post for that story!
I sent in my claim for long-term disability insurance, through my work-related group insurance company, on May 24. It still hasn’t even been reviewed yet, more than a month later. But when I called my insurer for an update, they asked me to have my doctor fill in yet another medical questionnaire, so that my file would be up-to-date.
So I had to ask my family physician to complete yet another form, for insurance reasons; because it has taken the insurance company so long to even review my file that the forms I sent with my application package are already out-of-date!
No wonder doctors can get annoyed with insurance company’s requests for forms! He tells me that he doesn’t mind, not in my case, because he knows that I’ve tried everything to be able to go back to work. And I brought with me all the medical questionnaires and forms he’d filled out since the start of my medical leave.
He said that really helps him to refresh his memory of what we’ve done in the past, and which information he has already provided to the insurance company. So for some questions, he can simply write “No change” and save some time.
As I was leaving the clinic, and he was already with another patient, I thought I should start calling him my family forms-ician. I’ll have to remember to tell him that at our next appointment; he’ll probably get a good – and rueful – laugh out of that one.
Thanks for reading, and try to find some humour in your day – whatever it is that you’re dealing with today!
* CPRS is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, also still often referred to by its former name; Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD).