My father had an appointment with his cardiologist on Monday. It was time to check the battery in his pacemaker and listen to her lecture him yet again about taking better care of himself - at 89 years of age. My father has never been a big fan of doctors, he hates hospitals and has an even lower opinion of nursing homes. I never really realized how sarcastic my father could be until the Thanksgiving a decade ago that he was in the hospital waiting for his first pacemaker to be installed.
He goes to the doctors - because they have so far kept him alive. But he also knows that his adventure is nearing an end. He has metastasizing lung cancer, a weak spot in his aorta, and his kidneys are barely able to keep him functioning. In consultation with various doctors he has chosen to not treat any of these, the treatments would dramatically lessen his quality of life, and he would be unlikely to survive the treatments. I fully support his choice, he knows what he is doing and what it means.
So my sister takes him to the cardiologist. His appointment is for 11:00 AM, they ask him to be there by 10:30 so the tech can check the pacemaker before he sees the doctor. They arrive at 10:15, within 10 minutes they take him in and check his pacemaker. Good news, it appears to be functioning well and he has over a year left on the battery. He sends my sister the waiting room and goes back to wait for the doctor. About 11:20 he comes out to the waiting room, goes into the toilet for minute. When he comes out he says to my sister - lets go. She asks him, what did the doctor say? He says, she didn't, I am tired of waiting. Nothing the doctor is going to is going to change anything, I have waited long enough.
In the car on the way to lunch, he looked at my sister and said, "I always wanted to do that!"
Have you ever gotten tired of waiting and walked out?
that sucks.
ReplyDeletebefore I married, I gave up on blind dates if they did not arrive 15 minutes beyond appointed meetup time (pre-cellphone days). I also left blind dates sitting there if they bored the crap outta me, or if they were only interested in doing the horizontal bop.
spouse and I have left restaurants for not being serviced in a timely manner.
I have never had to wait for my doctor; I fired my previous one for being too damn slow.
kudos to your dad; life's too short to waste time on idiots.
Good on him!! His only reason for being there from what I understand, was to have the pacemaker checked. That was done, so the doctor was only going to um and ah a bit.
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't mind if my GP keeps me waiting, simply because it's a practice full of elderly folk and my doctor never rushes anyone. I like knowing that if I need to take longer than my allotted 15 minutes, I can. I never do though because I hate think I'm holding others up. Maybe under different circumstances...
I didn't see Anne Marie's comment until now. I have left restaurants galore for being ignored by waiters who appear to have been struck blind.p
ReplyDeleteGood for your father! I admire his attitude about life. My mother never quite got to that way of thinking. She would constantly say what she couldn't have because it wasn't good for her health. Her last doctor was wonderful. He offered her a small piece of chocolate. She said, "Oh, I shouldn't have that." He said, "How old are you?" She said, "88." He said, "You can do what you want." She took the chocolate.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've always wanted to walk out of a doctor's waiting room for that very reason. I never have.
Medical wise only once but it wasn't so much delay rather than the mood I was in. I think I was about 10 years old and my mother took me to the dentist but let's just say I wasn't going to open my mouth ( a rare occurrence these days). I can remember the dentist calling in my mother and saying "Jean-Paul refuses to open his mouth" My mother still refers to this as my first in a life time of acts of defiance!
ReplyDeleteJP
hee hee hee! dentistry sucks worse than doctors.
DeleteI am very keen/aware of keeping on time; the patients seem to appreciate this
ReplyDeleteI don't know really if MDs just don't give a damn about keeping patients waiting or not.
Some of it is corporate medicine forcing Doctors to schedule more patients than they can see. If they have one who is more complicated than standard, it throws the rest of the day off.
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