First of all, my weight is a bit up at the moment. We are not at all surprised by this at your humble narrators house. You see I am on volt@ren again and this causes despicable water retention. I've also discovered a new food love, couscous. I'm sure it can be good for you in small quantities, but that is another story.
Also yesterday the stresses of this week forced me to eat a doughnut. Forced me I tell you!
Basically work is shit. We're experiencing extremely high call volumes and at the same time one of our systems keeps crashing every half hour. It sucks. I am tired and cranky, and I have a very sore left shoulder.
But the bit that takes the cake is this, on Wednesday morning I went to see a surgeon hand picked for me by my insurance company because they wanted me to have an independent assessment. I was told to take my films and be there for an appointment at 9am.
I am notorious for never being late, in fact most of the time I am early for everything including work. This particular morning was a bad example though and I was 15 minutes late in arriving at the office for my appointment.
I explained to the receptionist that I was in traffic and wanted to ring them but unfortunately did not have their number. She asked me a few questions, took my films, and had me sit in the waiting room. After a few minutes had past she came over to me and whispered, "he is going to ask you why you were late..." The look on her face conveyed that I should be worried about this, or scared.
I made my husband come with me to the appointment simply because he didn't have anything else to do, and I have had terrible experiences with doctors lately. This of course was no exception and goes down in the book as possibly the worst, ever.
At first he looked annoyed when I asked if mr. ralph could come in, but said, "if he wants to that is fine." And began the conversation with a statement, "I am to perform an independent assessment of you for workcover which as far as I was aware was meant to begin at 9'oclock." I told him I was sorry but traffic was bad and having never been there before I did not know the number to call to tell them I was on my way... This of course did not seem to appease him as he continued to look angry.
The man himself in first impressions does not exude any confidence. He is very large and overbearing. He made me feel immediately uncomfortable. He never introduced himself or did any niceties one would normally expect at a first time appointment.
From there it was straight downhill. He asked me a series of vague questions relating to my injuries, but refused to reword them or clarify what he meant when I asked for it. He actually argued back and forth with me that his questions were clear and self-explanatory when they most definitely weren't. I was so frustrated that I answered what I thought he meant.
At one point he stood up and asked me to take my shirt off and then walked out of the office leaving the door ajar without an explanation. I looked at my husband and shrugged but obliged and took my shirt off. Next thing I know he returns with the receptionist I mentioned before who did not say anything but merely sat in my seat next to my husband and began reading the paper. Then he performed some simple tests like reflex and looking up and down, raising my arms ect.
After that he asked me a few more questions and then told me he would need to keep my films overnight and said we could pick them up the following day. He asked me if I had any questions for him, and regrettably I asked him one and after I received somewhat of an answer he just sat there staring at his desk.
A weird silence past in which I wasn't sure what to do so I asked him if he was finished with me and he said, "yes have a good day," without even looking up at us.
When I left his office I burst into tears. This guy was a complete stranger to me and my case made me feel like a bug. He made me feel like I was an inconvenience to him, or a leech. I began to wonder why on earth he treated me so badly. Was he just a shite doctor? Was he just angry at my being late? Does he hate Americans? Does he think that people on workcover claims are just trying to steal from the system?
He repeated one question in particular that made me think he was suspicious of me. He asked me if I had at any time ever had any medical conditions other than this, and I said no. He then said, "never?" I said, "no." Then he said, "you've never been in a car accident?" I said, "no." "You've never been in hospital for any accidents?" Again, "no." He didn't seem to believe me.
I wrote a detailed letter of the event and sent it directly to my claims manager at my insurance company. I wanted them to know how unprofessional he was before he hands in his report. This way I don't look like I just don't like his report. I was contacted by my case manager's superior who told me they would, after receiving the report, have one of their staff discuss my letter with this doctor. So he will be made aware of how he made me feel. This I feel is good. Also they will do another independent if I feel it necessary. And this time I believe it is my right to choose which doctor I see. I will be asking my physio for the name of a good surgeon for it.
Of course this makes my new claim that is pending longer.. but I don't really have a choice. I can't imagine how this guy can assess me when he was obviously biased against me.
Sigh.
I know I mentioned this earlier when I was talking about doctor's in Aus, but seriously what is wrong here? Why do I keep having these f--ked up experiences with doctors?
I've got an appointment tomorrow with my normal GP and she is going to do a blood test so we can see if there is anything wrong with me that is causing my exhaustion other than work and the neck problems.
Lately I feel like I am drowning. Everything feels so hard. I also made an appointment to see a psychologist to talk about how I feel about the injury. The fact that has taken over my life and has been the center of it since the end of 2003 and doesn't seem to have an end in sight is really making me feel depressed. Everything is suffering. Up until recently I just wanted to keep it all together, pretend that it wasn't bothering me. But I can't pretend anymore. It is putting a lot of stress on me and it isn't letting up.
Also yesterday the stresses of this week forced me to eat a doughnut. Forced me I tell you!
Basically work is shit. We're experiencing extremely high call volumes and at the same time one of our systems keeps crashing every half hour. It sucks. I am tired and cranky, and I have a very sore left shoulder.
But the bit that takes the cake is this, on Wednesday morning I went to see a surgeon hand picked for me by my insurance company because they wanted me to have an independent assessment. I was told to take my films and be there for an appointment at 9am.
I am notorious for never being late, in fact most of the time I am early for everything including work. This particular morning was a bad example though and I was 15 minutes late in arriving at the office for my appointment.
I explained to the receptionist that I was in traffic and wanted to ring them but unfortunately did not have their number. She asked me a few questions, took my films, and had me sit in the waiting room. After a few minutes had past she came over to me and whispered, "he is going to ask you why you were late..." The look on her face conveyed that I should be worried about this, or scared.
I made my husband come with me to the appointment simply because he didn't have anything else to do, and I have had terrible experiences with doctors lately. This of course was no exception and goes down in the book as possibly the worst, ever.
At first he looked annoyed when I asked if mr. ralph could come in, but said, "if he wants to that is fine." And began the conversation with a statement, "I am to perform an independent assessment of you for workcover which as far as I was aware was meant to begin at 9'oclock." I told him I was sorry but traffic was bad and having never been there before I did not know the number to call to tell them I was on my way... This of course did not seem to appease him as he continued to look angry.
The man himself in first impressions does not exude any confidence. He is very large and overbearing. He made me feel immediately uncomfortable. He never introduced himself or did any niceties one would normally expect at a first time appointment.
From there it was straight downhill. He asked me a series of vague questions relating to my injuries, but refused to reword them or clarify what he meant when I asked for it. He actually argued back and forth with me that his questions were clear and self-explanatory when they most definitely weren't. I was so frustrated that I answered what I thought he meant.
At one point he stood up and asked me to take my shirt off and then walked out of the office leaving the door ajar without an explanation. I looked at my husband and shrugged but obliged and took my shirt off. Next thing I know he returns with the receptionist I mentioned before who did not say anything but merely sat in my seat next to my husband and began reading the paper. Then he performed some simple tests like reflex and looking up and down, raising my arms ect.
After that he asked me a few more questions and then told me he would need to keep my films overnight and said we could pick them up the following day. He asked me if I had any questions for him, and regrettably I asked him one and after I received somewhat of an answer he just sat there staring at his desk.
A weird silence past in which I wasn't sure what to do so I asked him if he was finished with me and he said, "yes have a good day," without even looking up at us.
When I left his office I burst into tears. This guy was a complete stranger to me and my case made me feel like a bug. He made me feel like I was an inconvenience to him, or a leech. I began to wonder why on earth he treated me so badly. Was he just a shite doctor? Was he just angry at my being late? Does he hate Americans? Does he think that people on workcover claims are just trying to steal from the system?
He repeated one question in particular that made me think he was suspicious of me. He asked me if I had at any time ever had any medical conditions other than this, and I said no. He then said, "never?" I said, "no." Then he said, "you've never been in a car accident?" I said, "no." "You've never been in hospital for any accidents?" Again, "no." He didn't seem to believe me.
I wrote a detailed letter of the event and sent it directly to my claims manager at my insurance company. I wanted them to know how unprofessional he was before he hands in his report. This way I don't look like I just don't like his report. I was contacted by my case manager's superior who told me they would, after receiving the report, have one of their staff discuss my letter with this doctor. So he will be made aware of how he made me feel. This I feel is good. Also they will do another independent if I feel it necessary. And this time I believe it is my right to choose which doctor I see. I will be asking my physio for the name of a good surgeon for it.
Of course this makes my new claim that is pending longer.. but I don't really have a choice. I can't imagine how this guy can assess me when he was obviously biased against me.
Sigh.
I know I mentioned this earlier when I was talking about doctor's in Aus, but seriously what is wrong here? Why do I keep having these f--ked up experiences with doctors?
I've got an appointment tomorrow with my normal GP and she is going to do a blood test so we can see if there is anything wrong with me that is causing my exhaustion other than work and the neck problems.
Lately I feel like I am drowning. Everything feels so hard. I also made an appointment to see a psychologist to talk about how I feel about the injury. The fact that has taken over my life and has been the center of it since the end of 2003 and doesn't seem to have an end in sight is really making me feel depressed. Everything is suffering. Up until recently I just wanted to keep it all together, pretend that it wasn't bothering me. But I can't pretend anymore. It is putting a lot of stress on me and it isn't letting up.
Comments
Oh honey, I absolutely feel for you. You are in pain and you need someone to listen first, then fix the pain.
It wasn't til I read these comments above mine that something clicked.
I haven't had any bad problems with all my years with Aussie doctors and I really, really think it is revoltingly unfair to plonk all 'Aussie' doctors in one basket and say that it is a problem with them. That's like us saying all American's eat at McDonalds for every meal. It's unfair and un true.
I do wonder though, whether they are sending you to doctors who are ball breakers because it is a compensation/work cover claim? We all know how much insurance companies want to give away their money. (yeah right!) so I wonder whether the under lying feeling is simply because they are on the back foot because it is a Work Cover claim?
The reason this clicked was because my ex-husband was electrocuted and thrown 10 metres from his work station and had alot of resulting problems after that. Each doctor that work Cover sent him to was suspicios in nature and generally very 'short' with him, their treatment and diagnosis.
This has been my only experience with anything to do with work cover.
Could that maybe the answer?
I'd be interested to know how these doctors would be if you simply went in with a runny nose and a sore throat.
Regardless, you need medical attention and healing and I feel shitty reading that you aren't getting it.