A Cold Sore!

This past weekend was a bit manic for my husband and I, but yesterday topped it all off.

On Saturday my darling hubby took his truck to Orlando to get fixed, he didn't get home until late and half way back the truck was worse than ever. So the truck is stuck in our garage and we're operating with only the car.

So my darling husband is doing the school run this week on his way to and from work. he hadn't been at the office long before he got a phone call from the school. One of the boys had been pulled from class because he had a cold sore. Rob explained the transport situation and asked if there was a work around. The school then called back an hour later to say that this same boy was in the office and would not be able to go back to class until he had been cleared by a doctor as not being contagious to the other students. This was a first for both my husband and I. Neither of us had ever heard of a cold sore keeping a child out of school.

However this was not as straight forward as just taking our boy to a doctor. As host parents we are not legal guardians. The boys are not covered on our health insurance, they are foreign students who have to have their own insurance. Of course being minors their parents have all their information and didn't send any copies with them. So Rob got stuck in the school office waiting for mom to fax over copies of health insurance documents and a letter authorising us to agree to medical treatment.

Then there is the ordeal of getting the medical treatment. None of the walk-in clinics take the Bahamian health insurance, so we have to pay for the treatment up front. Several telephone calls to the Bahamas later we get checked in at an Urgent Care center. Even the staff at the Urgent Care center are not sure how some of the paperwork should be completed. An hour later we finally get taken through to a consultation room where more medical history, and basic checks are done. We are moved to another consultation room and wait for another 10 minutes before we see a doctor. He takes one look and tells us that it is indeed a cold sore, offers a prescription and disappears for another 10 minutes. We are then sent back to the reception area to wait for the prescription and letter for the school. Another telephone call to mom and the decision is made to purchase an over the counter cold sore ointment rather than paying for two prescriptions that won't make recovery any quicker.

So my darling husband looses more than half a day at work, the boy looses a day of school and last baseball practice before today's home game, and mom in the Bahamas is out by $140 all for a letter from a doctor that says it is safe to go to school with a cold sore.

After all that my wonderful husband and I looked at each other and said the same thing, "that's another reason to homeschool!"

Post Op Appointment!!!!!

I had my post-op appointment today for the D&C two weeks ago. I don't know if I am more disappointed or angry. My darling husband had to take most of the afternoon off work to take me to the doctor's office. (I'm still on a learner's permit for driving and we only have one vehicle anyway, and he works a 40 min drive from where we live.)

The whole thing was a total waste of time. I got to the office and as I check in I am informed that the doctor has gone home to stay off her feet as she is pregnant and I will be seen by the nurse practitioner instead. The receptionist also processes a co-pay as she doesn't realise it is a post-op appointment. DH leaves me in the waiting room so he can go and vote in the State Senate Election that is going on today. After about 10 minutes I'm taken to a consultation room. When the NP comes in she obviously hasn't even read my file yet. She asks me how I'm doing and then proceeds to give me a lecture about not getting pregnant again straight away. She also notices that there is no pap smear results on my file (the file is 2 weeks old!) and asks me when my last one was. I inform her I've never had one and that the miscarriage was my first contact with a doctor since arriving in America. She tells me I need a Well Woman Check where they will order a mammogram, pap smear and check my cervix to make sure it is recovering correctly and it should be done in four weeks time. She then takes me back to reception to make another appointment for four weeks time. The receptionist then asks her what they are billing this visit as. Another nurse overhears and informs them both that this is a post-op appointment. The receptionist then realises that there should not have been a co-pay for this and has to refund the money.

I was under the impression that the post-op appointment was important because that was when they would check to make sure everything was returning to normal. I never even got my blood pressure taken, never mind a physical exam or hormone levels checked, nor did she do anything to check that there was no undetected infection. I asked if I should be concerned about anything and all I was told was don't get pregnant again until after we have checked everything at the next appointment. I was in total shock as I left that nothing was actually done at this appointment, other than to make another appointment. I won't be going, and I certainly won't be asking my husband to take anymore time off work to take me anywhere near that doctor's office again.

Now I am over the shock and beginning to feel angry. Everything I know about what has happened to me over these last few weeks I have found out by doing my own research. I have never had anything explained or told what to expect next. As I have been thinking about this tonight I realise I shouldn't be surprised. The doctor didn't even speak to me in recovery. She spoke to my husband immediately after the procedure, but she never came and spoke to me in the few hours I was still in the hospital recovering.

Well my rant is over. Hopefully I can get some sleep now. I do know I will be staying as far away from doctors as I possibly can for as long as I can. The health service doesn't seem to be about medical care, just about making money.