Waiting Room

What is it about doctors' waiting rooms? Everybody jokes about the tye and condition and age of the magazines which invariably sit there waiting to be lfited or ignored. My new doc's waiting room proved to be no exception, although his magazines seemed if anything to be older and tackier than the norm. I didn't have long to wait for the previous patient to be finished with, and then it was my turn.

What a great guy! The difference between him and my previous guy is incredible. I was with him for fifty minutes while he patiently and thoroughly went through things with me. He wrote out a request for blood tests which originaly he wanted me to bring to the MAter hospital ("they're quicker there: it'll only a three-week wait with them; it could be three months in Beaumont") but then as he donned his detective hat and began to delve deeper into my current medication and its possible sde-effects he decided to contact Beaumont then and there and ask to have urgent tests done. He did that, and I was immediately booked in for 8.30 tomorrow morning. He'd already written a letter to the same cardiologist I'd been to for my angiogram way back at the end of May 2009, and he made sure not to trivialise my concerns this time. He also wrote out a new prescription, including an additional tablet which he felt was needed to properly control my colesterol levels. The new medication and the letter to the cardiologist are to held in hand for the time being, pending the results of the blood tests. I'm to expect a call from him next week.

What a difference! This doctor is wonderful, immediately establishes a rapport with his patients and instils a feeling of absolute confidence in his ability. I was especially impressed when he finished off by suggesting that I may just be especially receoptive to side-effects of the meds I'm on, and by asking me if by any chance I exerienced problems with static electricity. I was amazed, and told him I did, though not as often or as badly as I used to. (I'd often get a shock from merely touching the car door.) He said that suggests that I could indeed be more prone than most to side-effects, and that this might be all that was involved with a numbe of the things on my I'm-concerned list. I left feeling much assured, and enormously impressed.