Doctor, You’re Fired! 4 Reasons to Get a New Doctor

By Johnny K Lee, on May 24th, 2009, Leave a comment

Anyone ever wanted to get a refund for their doctor’s visit? Here is my unofficial "it’s time to fire your doctor" list. Feel free to add yours in the comment.

4. Wait for it…

Tick, tick, tick…30 minutes has passed, I began to wonder if they have forgotten about me. "Johnny", the nurse called out. Finally! I threw down the magazine that I had stopped reading 10 minutes ago and hurried to follow the nurse. She brings me to a room, takes my temperature, and tells me that the doctor will be right with me. She lied! Twenty more minutes have passed. The doctor walks in unapologetically. Our session ends faster than I can cook cup o’ noodle.

3. Who are you?

Nine a.m. appointment, a little bit early for my taste. I got into the elevator to head up to the doctor’s office at 8:58am thinking that I had made it! My doctor came into the elevator right behind me. "A little late for work, aren’t we?", I thought. I was going to say good morning or something but he didn’t look like he wanted to socialize, as always. Even though we got there at the same time, it took a little while before I got to see him (see #4 above). He got right down to business, flipping thru my files and talking to me like it was my first visit. I don’t even think he knew I was in the elevator.

2. Your doctor quits on you.

So my doctor referred me to a physiatrist. A physia…what? Here are some highlights of a physiatrist, aka rehabilitation physician:

Experts at diagnosing and treating pain
Treat the whole person, not just the problem area
Provide non-surgical treatments
Work not only on treatment but also prevention

Sounds perfect for treating RSI! Once again, I was filled with hope and joy. I went into the physiatrist appointment with high hopes. But all he did was put [bad joke alert] the "dis" in the "appointment", disappointment, get it? After the standard reflexes and range of motion tests, he said that there’s nothing he can do for me. He tells me that if I can’t handle the pain then I should quit my computer job. And he didn’t do it in a nice way either. I was going to tell him that he should quit being a doctor, but that is counter-productive, so I let it go. After pushing on the issue some more, he tells me to take some Iibuprofen or Advil and that I’ll be fine in two weeks. Wait a minute, didn’t you just tell me that there is no cure, that I am destined to live my life in pain? Now it has become obvious that he just wants to get rid of me, so I left.

… and the number 1 reason to fire your doctor …

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