It's times like these that I have to tell myself over and over again that I should be grateful for Tricare and all the benefits it provides, thankful that I don't have to pay for insurance or prescriptions or anything like that, and to just take it all in stride.
Not this past weekend, but the weekend before, I got a call from Martin Army Hospital. It was one of those automated reminder messages telling me not to forget about an appointment that was scheduled for Aiden on the 23rd. To my knowledge, Aiden had no appointment scheduled for that day, so the following week I called to find out what was going on. The nice lady in Central Appointments tells me that Aiden has been scheduled for an appt in ENT for Wednesday, the 23rd of January. She's telling me this on Tuesday, the 22nd. Huh? I didn't make an appointment for him in ENT! Apparently when I took Aiden to the the doctor for his well-child check-up, they scheduled him for a follow-up appointment in ENT, but neglected to actually tell ME about it.
So I tell the lady that Wednesday is not going to work (and had they actually consulted with me before making the appointment I could have spared us all a lot of trouble), and I would call ENT later on and reschedule. Fine, no problem.
I get home and get the mail. In the mail is a sheet of paper from the surgical department at Martin Army, telling me that my appointment (which should have been that morning), is a consultation for surgery to have tubes put in Aiden's ears. WHAT? He already has tubes! He doesn't need more tubes! What is going on?? So I figured it was a good thing I had cancelled that appointment, since I would have been really irritated to get all the way down there only to discover it was a complete waste of time. Case closed. Or so I thought.
Yesterday morning I get a call at work from the ENT department saying they want to reschedule the surgical consult for my daughter, Eden.
Deep breath. Deep breath. In....Out.....In.....Out. Okay, here we go.
That's nice, I say, but I don't have a daughter. I have a son, his name is Aiden, A I D E N, and he doesn't need a surgical consult because he's already had the surgery for which you want to reschedule him. Please put down in your records that Aiden Christopher Echevarria has already had tubes put in BOTH of his ears, and if I feel that there is a problem with them, I, HIS MOTHER will make an appointment for him, at a time when it is convenient for me to bring him in. Is there anything else?
There is a reason that they call it "practicing" medicine, and if you ask me, the nice folks in ENT need to practice a little bit more!!!
2 comments:
Don't you just love military Dr's? I'm not always sure they know what they are doing! Oh well I don't have a military Dr after July!
It's not just the military Dr.'s when I went into the ER I discovered just how much practice they need. I am sitting there with a foot swollen to double it's size turning a lovely shade of black, and everyone of the people I saw had to ask me why I was there. Hum, could it be because of my foot? Then when I told them I thought I had busted my foot, they actually asked which one. Hello!
Then they miss read the x-rays and told me it was not broken, then told me it was. And sent me home with a broken foot. A week later I went back to get it re x-rayed only to find out it was never broken it was severely sprained.
Ah hopefully Practice makes perfect is true in the medical profession.
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