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After various bad experiences with medical doctors concerning my
health in the previous year, it occurred to me that all of them had
been male and, given my 'situation', I began to wonder that maybe I
would more likely be treated professionally
if I went to a doctor who was a woman... At the very least it was a
way of significantly narrowing down the list as I was once again back
to flipping through the phone book pages in search of a new doctor.
And so in the Spring of Nineteen Eighty-Eight I was picking out the
handful of female looking names and calling their offices to see if
they were accepting new patients. Most weren't as apparently, given
the quantity of female patients seeking a doctor who was also female,
it made them very high in demand. Finally I found one and set an
appointment. Before the appointment was to take place, I got a call
back from her office saying she wouldn't be seeing me. Why?
No explanation, the appointment was canceled from their end. I once
again went to the small list of remaining names and started calling.
I found another, actually closer to home, who had openings in her
schedule. I asked for an appointment.
When I arrived, it was actually a very professional doctor's complex
of multiple floors divided by specialty and a full service pharmacy
as you walked in. My hopes to find a doctor to treat me with more
courtesy
rose given the gloss of her office building. Riding the elevator up
to her floor I checked in and filled out the prerequisite paperwork.
Given my troubles writing by hand, I had made sure to arrive a half
hour earlier than they had suggested, it turned out to be just the
right amount of time. Paperwork turned in, I briefly looked out the
large window to the main road before my name was called and I was
lead through a series of hallways to her combination office and exam
room.
She welcomed me and then said she was surprised. It turned out the
reason she had openings in her schedule was because she expected to
be going on maternity leave in a couple of months and had been
transferring her existing patients to other doctors in preparation.
As a result, she didn't think she would be of much help to me. I
explained to her my years of weight loss, my various medical tests
showing results for which I couldn't find treatment and my hope that
the underlying cause could be quickly found and I could be getting
stronger and back to work in a couple of months. She concluded
that since I wasn't expecting regular appointments but more of a
quick review that perhaps her schedule would work out. I was to
provide copies of my medical records for her, she made a follow-up
appointment for an initial physical where she would also order any
additional tests she thought were needed, and then a follow-up
appointment was also set where she would tell me of her findings and
thoughts for treatment.
I left the appointment feeling thrilled and quickly went home to
retrieve my pile of medical test results and hospital records and was
off to the copy place to make a fresh set. I then went back to the
medical office and was directed to their patient records department
where I provided them the copies directly. They were pleasantly
surprised as they were use to patients signing medical request forms
and the staff spending weeks trying to cajole copies of those records
back from the various places. And here I was handing them the
records all collected and they didn't even have to make their own
copy, to boot!
Two weeks later I went back for the physical and was lead into a
special purpose examination room and told to undress and get into the
typical gown. Done, I waited for a bit and a man came in to perform
the physical. This confused me and when I said I was expecting the
woman doctor he explained that, given the number of doctors available
in the building, when it came time for physicals they traded patients
for examinations to have a same sex match and thus ensure patient
comfort. I broached the subject that I had some, uncomfortable,
physical examination experiences in the past given some puberty
issues and I had specifically chosen a female doctor this time to see
if things would turn out better. I didn't want to use any specific
terms, largely because I still didn't know them for my situation, but
he seemed to get enough of the gist that instead of insisting we go
ahead with the physical he would first check with the woman doctor.
Another experience of sitting and waiting for what seemed like an
hour in just the gown came and went before he returned. When he did,
he told me that actually the woman doctor had
reviewed my medical records and had decided that a physical
examination wasn't needed after all. I could get dressed and leave
and she'd see me at my already scheduled follow-up appointment. This
was a surprise, though in part a welcome one given my past
experiences; I wasn't going to miss another awkward examination.
When I returned the following week, I was once again taken to her
combination office and exam room and this time she wasn't already
there waiting. I sat down for a while and listened to her office
radio which had the local public radio station playing softly in the
background. As I had become acquainted with the station and had even
visited with the station's manager a few times, I took this as yet
another sign that this would be a good experience as we had similar
tastes. And then she came in and, leaving the office door open, sat
down and opened a file she had brought with her.
She told me that she had reviewed my records and congratulated
me! Everyone feels a little
stressed when college Finals come up but not to worry, she was sure I
would do fine. And she was gone, leaving the door open in
her wake. I sat there dumbfounded. As I hadn't been able to attend
College in over a year because of my health, and we hadn't even
broached the subject of College during my first appointment with her,
where had all that come from? Had she mistaken me for a
completely different patient or something?
With little clue what else to do I stayed sitting there hoping that
she'd come back and I could ask her what she had been talking about.
But she didn't return and after about twenty minutes a nurse came to
the room to tell me I needed to leave as the room was scheduled for
another patient. When I asked her if the doctor was coming back
because there seemed to be some misunderstanding, the nurse let me
know the doctor wouldn't be coming back and I didn't need any more
appointments either.
I aimlessly walked out of the office, through the halls, and rode
down the elevator in a stupor wondering what had that been about?
But finding no clue.
A few weeks later I was told my state aid stipend had been canceled
due to an unexpected letter from a doctor. They included a copy of
that letter and it was from the woman doctor and had been sent
straight to the county's state aid office.
In the top half she told them that I was a life long welfare fraud
who had seen dozens of doctors and had never worked a day in my life.
The bottom half of the letter noted that she had heard that I had
seen Dr. Smith and then she dished the rumors about him she had also
heard through the grapevine.
Counting through all the medical experiences in my life, I found that
I hadn't seen a single dozen doctors yet, let alone dozens.
Where the heck had all this come from? Had she been talking
to other people about me despite not having any releases to allow
her? Apparently 'yes', based on the letter, but where
had she gotten this load full of B.S.?
I wondered if my mother's primary care physician had been making
up even more stories about me, now, these many months later. Had
he been spontaneously bringing me up by name to his physician golf
buddies for a laugh and to add another layer of fiction about me and
get it disseminated through this medical grapevine? Was that why the
local gastroenterologist at the end of the year told me he felt the
fat malabsorption test results couldn't be believed as he 'already
knew' I couldn't have an organic cause to my weight loss? Because
that was what he heard in rumors from other doctors that he never had
my permission to discuss my case with...?
I called the state aid office about this and they told me that I
could have a hearing scheduled if I wanted to appeal, and I could
contact the local Legal Aid group if I didn't have enough money to
hire a lawyer of my own.
With little other clue what else to do about this, I did what was
suggested and contacted the Legal Aid group...
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