If you've ever worked in the service industry, hopefully you are aware of the phenomenon that I have experienced as a service provider. There are certain people who fall through the cracks nearly every time I encounter them, through my fault alone. When I was a waitress for a summer in my 20s, a pair of businessmen would always sit at one of my tables. I would always forget their coffee, and they would always get their food late and cold. I didn't do it on purpose, but we were somehow trapped in a bad relationship where they weren't on my radar and were neglected as a result. They complained, yet still continued to sit at that table.
This still happens to me today. Certain members of the monarch enthusiasts club want things from me, and it is my job to provide them. 99% of the time, it all works out for everyone, but sometimes certain people experience repeated issues. Emails get buried, invoices get misplaced, and the like.
Who wants to be that person who is falling between the cracks? Not me. I think I've been that person before, and I think I do a good job of recognizing it and re-calibrating my trajectory. My previous doctor repeatedly failed to attend to certain, important things. Being overlooked when I'm paying for a service caused me to seek the service elsewhere, and I landed right in the hands of a doctor who pays attention.
After some debate about which doctor to use -- Dr. Reussner in Lawrence, or Dr. Shnayder at KU Med Center -- I decided to go with Dr. R because he is so highly recommended by people who know him, including Dr. S. One nurse friend told me, when I was explaining my choice, and I said that part of it was his excellent bedside manner. She has seen patients who had this same procedure, and she said, "His technical skills are on par with his bedside manner." That's good to hear. She also said that the majority of the time, things go right, and even when things go right, something can go wrong, even with the simplest procedures. I think this philosophy goes along with that mysterious gap between getting it right most of the time, and things sometimes slipping through the cracks, even when you're trying to pay attention.
My thyroidectomy is scheduled for Aug. 12.
But I've had to call Dr. R's office several times to get him to refer me to an endocrinologist. It turns out the person who normally does the referrals was in a car accident. So, I called Dr. S and my primary, Dr. Cordova, to send the referral. Dr. Lehil is the current endo in town, but he is leaving to be replaced by Dr. Oertel, who just finished a residency at KU Med Center and isn't seeing patients until mid October. So, there's a window where no new patients will be seen, and I need an endocrinologist on or around Sept 20, six weeks after my thyroid is removed.
At this point, I have three doctors working on getting me scheduled for the first available endocrinologist with either Dr. Oertel or a KU Med Center doctor.
When I called Dr. Oertel's office myself, when the receptionist said I can't be seen until October, I told her, "I'm having my thyroid removed because I have cancer. I'm not rescheduling just because Dr. Oertel isn't seeing patients. If he can't see me, I'm going to go to KU Med." The receptionist said she'd try to fit me in. But until then, I am most certainly slipping through a crack.
I now have a referral for the KU Med doctor, and the receptionist there is lovely. She said, "I don't know what's going on with Dr. Oertel."
I said that I think I just got stuck in a gap between two doctors coming and going.
"Sometimes I feel like that's what life is... getting stuck in the gaps," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment