The urgent care I went to diagnosed me with some kind of bronchitis/walking pneumonia with no xray…read moreat the end of my 2nd week being sick. My chest hurt and I was struggling to breathe, so they gave me a zpack. Finished the zpack and was still having a lot of chest pain, so they prescribed deoxycycline. 2 weeks later, I notice I still have a swollen lymph node and I call up Dr Clark's office and make an appointment (second time I've seen her, first time was for a prescription refill and to meet her. My first impression was that she was friendly and knowledgeable). So Wednesday afternoon I left early and went to the office and was seen. At the time the only way I felt unwell was my chest still not feeling quite alright (I'm an athlete, mind you) and the lymph nodes in my neck were sore. My mucus had gone from yellow to clear after about 3 weeks of being sick and I told her all this. She says it sounds like allergies, that must be it because they're going around. Allergies? I'm mostly just allergic to my cat and it's just a mild stuffiness. She smiled at me like I was naive, and said that because the mucus was clear it had to be that. No argument there, but it's not the underlying cause. I insisted on a chest xray and later that afternoon from the ever efficient BJC hospital got my results saying my lungs were "a little full." That was the only test considered and she didn't even think it necessary. She put me on a THIRD antibiotic, amoxicillin claviculanate. Thursday I felt terrible, people were telling me "go home, you didn't sound like this yesterday, etc." Called the nurse about 2 pm and when they called back around 4:30ish with the Dr's directions, the directions were to keep taking the medication and "call tomorrow and let us know how you're doing so if something needs to be done before the weekend, we can do something.... It's not pneumonia." Friday morning, I could hardly get out of bed from the way my head was spinning and the pain. I called them about 8, called back about 10. "She says that if it's that bad, then go to the emergency room." "What does she think they're going to do? I didn't feel like crap before these meds and know I do." $125 copay would light a fire under anyone's ass as well especially after just seeing their physician. Called back again, "she's sending a new prescription out to the pharmacy." Jesus, was that so hard? Week later, my ears are still killing me my throat is raw from coughing (productive cough though) and my lymph nodes are throbbing. Call again, let them know. Prednisone. Took 2 days as prescribed and began having arrhythmias. Bad ones, I had them from anxiety that weren't this bad. That, along with the loss of sleep and irritability, led me to call *yet again.* I know what you're thinking, but my god, it's Friday I don't want to have to wait and pay more money if it gets bad and Monday is is a holiday. Called at 10:11 am and the nurse picked up immediately. Let her know about my symptoms, she said they'll call back after she's spoken with the dr. Apparently they closed at noon. Never called. NEVER CALLED. Thankfully the exchange was very helpful and forgiving. After this whole thing of being treated like a drug or attention seeker, I'm just kind of done. I'm just sick of being sick; it's been 6 weeks as I'm writing this and I'm still not well. I work in a hospital and the Dr's know me pretty well because of my station. They've been giving advice and none of it matches what the Dr wants it to be. Been referred to an ear, nose and throat Dr who I'll call on Tuesday, by my optometrist, of all people. Maybe he'll take care of it, since it's allergies, after all.
Overall, as much as I like BJC, I don't think I can continue to see her because in America, healthcare is a business and only a business. I'm paying you a great sum of money for a return, yet only getting about half of what I expected. I have health insurance, one of the best, so I can use it if I need it! Apparently she just wants me to use it to come see her in her office. I've never had complications like this before, I rarely even have a bad side effect, so this circumstance was unusual for me. I thought for sure with her having been a Dr since 1989 that she was a good bet for a physician as opposed to a new Dr such as my last one. To be treated like I'm panicking over nothing and being ignored is not helpful. All I can say was, I sure hope you were busy Friday because it cost you a customer, or as it should be known, patient. I'm actually not mad, not anymore, just really disappointed. I had hoped for better.
