The woman in front of me had no idea what my day might have held, and either didn’t care, or had suffered as grueling a day as I had.
She’d spelled my name wrong, botched my test details, and broke the news that Pre-registration should have told me about a $200 co-insurance payment that I was supposed to have been prepared to pay. I had spent the entire day getting medical tests on two separate hospital campuses, two more in a year of quest to determine the cause of my dizzy spells. And Vicky with the last name that I remarked must be German but which apparently was not, sang her way through the World’s Longest Check-in. Seriously, the Guinness book people hovered nearby the entire time.
Twenty minutes into the mess, I found myself trying to remember why it was I decided that 2014 would be a good year to quit complaining. I tried to hold my tongue while she argued that I should sign the form with a misspelling of my name or she would have to do it all over again. I could hear the clipped tones I used as I insisted that my name could be corrected, either by me or by her and, more importantly, that I had had no idea that I would have to write a check for two hundred dollars today.
And she looked at me and said, “Well, I attended the funeral of a nine-year old child yesterday so I guess I just consider everything else trivial now.”
Okay. Well. I suppose that’s right. Game, set and match.
Great post! You managed to say so much in so few words!
I am, at the same time, holding energy in my heart, that the outcome of all this testing brings results that are manageable for you, as you move toward complete resolution and recovery!
Still no reason to mistreat a patient. If she was not yet ready to return to her job and do it competently, then she should have taken a day off!
Possibly. It all swirls around in my head and I wonder: Did she “mistreat” me, or did she gently thunk me on the head?
She both mistreated you AND thumped you on the head which only made her wrong, twice.
Ahhh . . . the old “well, at least you didn’t have a baby in a tree” response. All true – it’s all in the thankful attitude. But that doesn’t make me wish you had had a more pleasant day any less. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Ahhh . . . the old “well, at least you didn’t have a baby in a tree” response. All true – it’s all in the thankful attitude. But that doesn’t make me wish you had a more pleasant day any less.
Ok, I keep trying to post a response, but I get something back that says, “your comment is awaiting moderation.” Huh? I seriously do not know wth that means, so I’m just going to say that I hope tomorrow is less challenging. I said it much more eloquently in my attempted responses.
Jane, the blog is set up so that the first time someone posts a comment, the system asks me to approve the comment. Once you’ve been approved, you should not have that occur again. Thank you.