From the Heart
“If this is an emergency, please hang up and call 911.”
Have you called a doctor lately? I don’t know if the above command is a regulation but every doctor I have called in the past little while has had that as their greeting.
And then the medical maze begins.
“If you are a physician or physician’s office calling, press 1. If you are a patient, press 2.”
Next up, after pressing 2 …
“Using the keypad, spell the first three letters of your physician’s last name.”
“If you would like to set or change an appointment, press 1. If you would like to refill a prescription, press 2. If you would like to speak to a nurse, press 3. If you have a billing question or wish to make a payment, press 4.”
I’ve never gotten past 4 before pressing a number.
If I press 2, I know I need to listen up and pay close attention to the instructions.
“Please leave your name [spelling the last name], date of birth, medication you wish refilled, pharmacy you wish to use including the location. If you are calling after 4 p.m. you will need to check with your pharmacist the next day. If you wish to receive a call back it will not be until the next day. If your prescription is a controlled substance you will have to wait 48 hours in which to pick it up.”
If it is a weekend … well, it ain’t happening. (Okay, that is my mind talking.)
By the time I get off the phone I’m just hoping that I answered all the needed questions correctly.
It’s even trickier as I handle all of my mother’s prescriptions and doctor appointments. I have to remember her information as well as mine. I must confess that I have given her birthdate as my birthdate, giving the pharmacy people a good laugh.
In the past few weeks between Mom and me, we have seen two optometrists, one urologist, two family practice doctors, one neurologist, two orthopedists, one podiatrist, two nurse practitioners and several physical therapists.
I keep a binder of information about my mother. It is tabbed according to the information that I might need.
I keep a calendar at her home and one at my home to keep things straight. I did take her to a doctor’s appointment two hours early a couple of weeks ago. (I blamed the concussion.)
Chuck has his fair share of doctors, but I’m not even going to try and keep track of all of his appointments.
I tell you what, this getting older is a lot more challenging than I ever imagined.
I’m just hoping to never have to call 911, although my mom says that the firemen and paramedics are really nice. She was never afraid to push her life alert button. Yes, she was able to answer the person on the other end with the famous statement, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”