Before I get back to updating the last 6 weeks, I sometimes am simply exhausted trying to get things straight with doctors, staff, pharmacies, and other parts of the medical system that are just skewed.  Ladies and gentlemen, we are, to put it bluntly “SCREWED!”

And I don’t see it improving, only getting worse.

I found out yesterday at a Senior Dimensions Fair that the head pharmacist of the Pahrump Walgreens store doesn’t know there are two pneumonia shots that are required.  Not funny, but kinda.

I called the pharmacy to find out which one I had in May and told him I was at the SDF where they were giving free flu and pneumonia shots and I needed to know which one I was given.  He said I didn’t need both of them, I was good for life.

I told him that the pharmacist that administered the whooping cough shot in August told me I needed the second pneumonia shot.  Nope, he didn’t believe that I was told that.  “Perhaps he told you there were two but you didn’t need them both.”

“No, he specifically told me I should have the second one because it has 13 new strains in it.”

“I’m not going to argue with you about it.  You don’t need the second one.”

“Thank you,” End of conversation and I went back to the SD pharmacist at the fair who said — emphatically — that you do need both.  They need to be administered one year apart.

Color me unhappy for the 900th time with advice by a medical professional.  I’m changing my pharmacy.

My doctoring group in Pahrump is also part of the SD group.  A million times or so there have been mistakes, the wrong information given…no share information between the assistants/doctor so if you see one, no one else knows what’s going on.  How is that possible?  They used to come in with a nurse who noted information on a pc while you talked to the doctor – perhaps that still happens when the licensed MD is in the room with you but when you see one of the APNs, it doesn’t.

They come in with a sheet of paper with your request for scrips for the visit or a report on an ultrasound or test you had and that’s it.  No shared information.

Need a referral? And yes, you do for everything from an eye doctor to a gastroenterologist, dermatologist, etc. But not to worry, if you get one, and visit the office you were referred to, the information isn’t shared with your primary care doctor…even if you request the information to be sent to each.

Can you get a referral?  Sure, it could take two to three weeks or even a month or two and in the meantime, you have to keep calling back and checking/bitching/prodding to get it moving.

I got a referral over six months ago to Center for Site in Las Vegas.  My appointment has been cancelled five times.  WAHOOOOOO!  I finally called SD on Monday and complained.  They filed a grievance report and stayed on the line while I was connected to Center for Site.  In all of the cancellations and appointment resets, they never called and asked what office/time/day was convenient for me, they left a voice mail telling me I was cancelled and when my next appointment would be.  I think I have that one worked out finally.

No frustration here…just resigned piss-off.

I asked for another referral about a year ago, it took two phone calls to get it.  They told me it was at the office and I picked it up, never looked at it, tossed it on the table for a few days and when I went back to it, it was stapled to two other sheets of paper.  They gave me a printout of another person’s medication list.  SWEET!

I’ve had other referrals since then but the last request was the last straw.  Three months ago I asked for an order for a yearly mammogram, “Sure,” and I finished the office visit.

A week later I called Desert View Hospital to see if the order had been placed.  “No, I’m sorry, I don’t have anything.”

The following month I went in for scrip refill and asked again.  “SD only allows you to have one every two years.”  That was what I was told by the same APN I originally asked for the referral a month before.

I called SD yesterday and they will give you a free one every year.

All the misinformation and all the bull shit is making me worse than upset.  I’ve told every doctor and APN that I’ve seen in that office that I have one kidney.  I was given a scrip for pain about 5 months ago…filled twice…taken intermittently…and found out two weeks ago it is very hard on your kidneys.  Gee, thank you so much for fucking with my health.

On an even sadder note, about a year ago I wrote a lengthy letter to the head MD at that office, telling him about a bunch of mistakes that were made.  Sealed it in an envelope with his name on it, and gave to the APN I was seeing that day and asked if she would give it to him.  She said yes.

The following month on my visit with her, I asked if she’d given it to him.  She said yes. I never heard from him.  He gave me his private phone # about two years ago in case I had a problem, I sent him two texts, he never responded.  Apparently he didn’t care about my complaints.  But when he got a new medical marijuana patient in that didn’t know how to grow or get seeds or clones, he called me and asked me to help him.  Gee…thank you!  If I need something I can forget it, but if you want to be a star in front of someone I’m supposed to help make you look that way.

Did I help the new patient?  Yes, I did.  I found someone that had a growing clone and was willing to give it to me, I took it to the new guy, explained nutrients, light cycles, pruning, etc.  And told him to hit the forums to learn how to care for them and start his own clones.

“Thank you, Linda!”

“You’re welcome universe, thank you for thanking me.”

Those gripes aren’t even the tip of the iceberg, it’s just disgusting but this week it all seems to have boiled over.  I changed my primary care doctor today in a phone call with SD.  Next month I will go to a completely new office and a completely new doctor.

And I’m moving my scrips to a new pharmacy.  If I wanted to die, I’d just go ‘off’ myself.  I like to enjoy as much quality as I can in the years I have left on earth.  I know there aren’t enough doctors or nurses as it is but I don’t have a solution for that and maybe complaining isn’t the answer, but maybe it is.

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I’m a grouchy, jaded grandma!  If I write something that seems a bit negative and it resembles you, it was probably a character in a nightmare I had one time and has nothing to do with you.  If you still believe it was you, maybe you should consider rethinking your approach to people and life.