Doctors and Specialists and Copays, oh my!

Anyone else ever had a really hard time finding the right doctor?

Let me open with a little story from 2003:

I had fallen on some ice the year before that, landing on the small of my back. (Yikes.) After taking a management position at a local cafe, I found that working on my feet for 12 hours and lugging gallon after gallon of milk to the front refrigerator was agitating what already hurt like hell. X-rays were inconclusive, so I was referred to a neurologist chauvinistic, androcentric jackass of a neurologist. Now, I had gained 30 pounds in three short months on a high dose of ortho tri-cyclen, and was the chubbiest I've ever been in my life. But was the following really necessary?

He comes in, flips my chart for 10 seconds, takes a look at me, and has a seat. He then proceeds to tell me that his girlfriend is my height and weights 105, that I'm "obese," and that I really should lose weight before trying to figure out "what's going on with my back." Never mind that I had injured it in a fall (and would find out seven years later that it was probably the beginning of my compressed disc); never mind that he was a professional, or that I was in great pain, or that I had paid a small fortune in copays to finally be referred to and to see a neurologist (according to my primary care doctor at the time, the only specialist who could've helped me at that point).

...Seriously? It's also worth mentioning that my primary care doctor at the time was so overwhelmed with patients that every time I'd go in for an appointment, my MINIMUM wait time was an hour. No joke. Luckily, thought, I had (and still do have) a great GYN - Dr. Bellantoni manages his patients very well, always takes the time to talk with me about everything I need to know, and I trust the man (he performed surgery on me). Since then I've switched my primary care doctor and I now see someone who is punctual, professional, and can still take the time to explain things to me. He's also the type who, when I go in and tell him my symptoms, he'll ask things like, "What antibiotic usually works best for you?" instead of dragging me through trial after trial of this and that. He also knows that if I'm there, it's because I'm extremely sick - no pamphlets on "the common cold" or "If it doesn't get better in 7 to 10 days, come back and see me." It's yep, you sound AWFUL - let's get you started on something right away. He's also been very patient with me lately as I started seeing him in May for my head pain, was referred to an ENT, had no luck there, and came back to him instead of a repeat visit to the specialist. Let me tell you, if I'm paying a total of 70 bucks to first see my PCD for a referral and then visit a specialist, it's because I'm in tremendous, unbearable pain - so the casual way in which the first ENT approached my problem and his lack of aggression to combat my pain and solve the issue was a red flag. My doctor was very understanding about my disappointment regarding the specialist and was promptly writing me a new referral to someone else.

So, what's the point of this post? Just to get the word out there that if you're not satisfied with the doctors or specialists you see, don't be afraid to shop around. I know the quality of care is going to decline steadily once the Health Care Reform kicks in (provided no one stages an anti-socialist revolution), so you might as well find some excellent doctors now while they're still around. I took a look at how much money I spend on health insurance each year and realized, hey, I'm the consumer here. I deserve a good experience. I deserve a health care provider who a) knows what he/she is doing, b) has people skills, and c) wants to solve the issue instead of just treat the symptoms with  the same meds while the real problem never goes away. Same goes for the office staff - if I'm being treated as a nuisance for calling to make an appointment at a busy time, forget it.

Other than the horrendously unprofessional EMTs who drove me to the ER when my back went out and I literally couldn't walk or feel my legs - the same guys who insisted that I could walk and that it "couldn't be that bad" (why, because 26-yr-olds don't get compressed discs?!) - I feel fortunate to have some degree of control over my health care, and am wise to exercise that control whenever possible. I can't pick and choose who helps me in an emergency, but I'm definitely going to make sure that I'm in good hands otherwise.