September 15, 2011
So,yesterday I take Cymbre to see a child neurologist to see about her headaches. Since we know she has a retinal vasospasm ocular migraine in her eye (which causes her vision to go black, sometimes for several hours) and this typically causes a migraine inside her head. Hence the doctor visit. The eye specialist recommends we see a child neurologist to obtain some medicine to give Cymbre some relief when she actually gets the migraine in her head. The one in her eye doesn't cause her any pain, just a very sore eye, but the one in her head is an entirely different situation.
Now, this doctor was listed on our insurance list....however, she shouldn't be listed on anybody's list!
So we get there, and go inside after driving about 40 minutes. The place is a pigpen. Papers and books everywhere. The front desk is so messy, I can't even see the desktop. However, I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt....BIG MISTAKE!!
So we are sitting there (we are the only patients in the office)....and I overhear the front desk personnel talking about the forms I have given to them already filled out. Now at the top of the form it asks for name, b-day, SEX, SSN, etc. However, the person doing the computer cannot decide if Cymbre is a boy or a girl....excuse me?.....How about reading your own dumb form? It's listed right there at the top, or there's always take a look at the patient who is dressed like a girl, with a girl hairdo and wearing make-up. So I stand up and say, excuse me, but we are sitting right here and it just so happens that the patient is a girl....I wrote it on your form, and it should be clear from seeing her that she is a girl.
Then the nurse calls us back, and while they are weighing Cymbre on the scale, there is a scotty dog standing right there at the scale. I about DIED!! Again trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, we just looked at each other, and I can tell that Cymbre is thinking maybe we should be leaving. We make it into the exam room, and the dumb dog follows us....there's a little bed in the corner for the dog....who on the way to her bed has sniffed in my purse. (I don't like dogs, and I really don't like them sniffing around in my personal belongings where I have my insulin.....I'm just saying!!!!)
So now I am thinking....what the heck is going on? Who is this doctor, and why do we have a dog in the exam room? Isn't there some health law that doesn't allow this?
There are books and papers scattered EVERYWHERE, and I am thinking that the fire marshall would certainly not be happy with this. (Note to self....see how you report something like that to some official person) I mean he wasn't happy one time at the dance studio when we had some cases of printer paper stacked up....he would probably have a heart attack immediately if he saw this place.
I am just about ready to tell Cymbre we are leaving when the doctor comes into the room. She looks like she has put her finger in a light socket...her hair appears to not have been combed in months. She is wearing either paint splattered clothes, or bleach splatter clothes...I'm not sure which. Either way, TOTALLY, not what you would expect to see on a doctor who is treating patients. She sits down, says you won't mind the dog, and immediately starts talking to Cymbre.
We tell her Cymbre's story, and she immediately tells me that Cymbre is probably having seizures, and will need a daily seizure medicine and a bunch of tests. EEG, MRI's, a longer EEG, bloodwork.....and I am thinking....Guess again lady!!! I am NOT drugging my daughter everyday if she doesn't need it! And you haven't proven to me that she needs it!
So I just tell her that I am tired of doctors who don't listen to us....the kid has never had a seizure.....she doesn't listen. Instead she focuses in on whether Cymbre is a perfectionist or not....if you are a perfectionist you match all your clothes, you don't mix things up.....Are you kidding me? Perfectionists tend to suffer from migraines.....so yes, Cymbre does match her clothes. (Could it be because I buy them in matching sets? DUH!!) And perfectionists bring stress on themselves, so we need to write a note to school to have them have someone there to read Cymbre any tests she needs to take to avoid her having stress about her eye going black....WHAT???? (If we do that, they will fill out form to classify Cymbre as a special needs child at school and it will follow her the rest of her life!) NOT happening!! This is a straight "A" student, who because of her eye may have to use a colored transparency to reduce the glare of the page, but she is capable of taking a test all on her own! Even if her eye goes out, she can still see with her left eye, and the teachers know that she may require extra time if that happens. By now, I am sure that I need another dose of my blood pressure medicine!!! I am considering hyperventilating....(Ok, mom....try to calm down....breathe.....)
Again I try to get her to focus on the headaches....NO....we have to hear about her personal medical issues....who is Cymbre's retina doctor? She has some retinal issues...She tells us she is hard of hearing..WHO CARES? I am not here to hear about your personal issues. Then she tells us that she has been dealing with being brought before the medical licensing board.....OK...RED LIGHTS flashing, red flags waving, I think I am getting a headache and it's from my blood pressure I am sure. My heart is pounding, and I can see myself in jail for killing this woman....it's time to leave. I am praying for an exit excuse......
She tells us that at our next visit she will see Cymbre alone....I am thinking, you will have to kill me first.....I know, not very Christian of me.
After a little more non-pertinent discussion, she is called to the phone.....THANK GOODNESS....Heavenly Father is listening to my prayers of what do I do now? So I tell Cymbre, let's go....we go out to the front desk....and are checking out when she comes out and says....wait....we have to order her tests. So now, I am thinking, order whatever the heck you want....I'm not taking her....however, we wait a minute and I tell them that if she needs tests, I want to have them done at my local hospital and not downtown. Are they listening....I doubt it! And while I am standing there, she asks me if I want to get the tests because of my headaches...EXCUSE ME....I am not the patient. AND No, you are not treating me or ordering a bunch of tests when I already have a headache treatment plan that works for me.
Don't you just LOVE doctors who don't listen, and then make snap judgements based on NO physical information? Excuse me, I am a medical coder, and I know that she has to have much more information in order to make an accurate diagnosis. She has to have documentation in written form...so I tell her she can't write seizures as the diagnosis on Cymbre's records or I will tell the insurance company that it not right and she is committing insurance fraud. WE LEAVE!
We get in the car...Cymbre is telling me she doesn't want to come back....I am telling her that we aren't coming back....I am trying to decide just what I am going to do.....but we aren't going back. Maybe we should get the MRI, but nothing else, and then take the results to another doctor. I have to think, but first I have to drive home in the rush hour Houston traffic! I must get my rage under control and focus!!!! We stop at a gas station to get a big drink!
Remember that prayer for an excuse to leave....well, it is answered with an interesting sidenote....Guy's office is just right there not far from the doctor's office...just acrossed the street from where we stopped to get a drink. Heavenly Father must have known that I needed to see Guy desperately. He came out of his office parking lot just as I was passing it....we saw the van....I told Cymbre to call her Dad. As soon as I heard his voice, I could feel myself start to calm down....being able to see his vehicle made me feel like everything was going to be ok, I could do this, we could figure out what to do. It is amazing to me that he has that influence on me even from a distance. Somehow I just know that if he is there, we will somehow manage to figure out this latest little trauma from our resident black cloud. (You would think after 32 years and counting, that dumb cloud would be tired of hanging around us ALL the time!) I manage to pull in front of him at a stop light, and there is a confidence in knowing that he will follow me all the way home. Somehow, he is protecting Cymbre and me from behind us.
All the way home, I am thinking....this is just another chapter in the Soap Opera of the Flanagan Family book people say I should write.....I have to calm down first. I have to find a competent doctor for Cymbre first.....I have to make it home and talk to Guy first. I should have made him come with me....well, maybe not....he would have lost it!
I go home and after I get the girls to bed, I sit down to see if I can find out why the doctor was disciplined by the medical board. Well, I did.....three counts of over-perscribing controlled medications to 98% of her child patients, and perscribing controlled medications to herself. (That's a big no no!) She cannot practice in the state of New York as they took her license away...so I am thinking, does the state of Texas know this???
There is no way, I will even think about considering taking Cymbre back there. We have to find another doctor.
Fast forward to today:
Cymbre's eye goes out at school for about 30 minutes....thank goodness, it came back and she does NOT have her headache. We don't need another 4 day episode.
So today, we get a call from the doctor's office. Cooper answers it...I tell her I am not talking to them. She takes a message. They want me to call a hospital downtown to set up Cymbre's tests. I say, to bad, not doing it. So she just pretends to take a message.
A few minutes later the hospital calls me...I answered. They say that the doctor ordered all these tests, and they want to set them up. Well, number one, it's not the location that I asked them to schedule tests at, number 2 we're not doing them. I tell the lady that I am not coming for tests, and also not returning to the doctor's office. She says she needs to know why. I tell her the doctor is a lunatic. My daughter does not have seizures, and I'm not paying for a bunch of unnecessary tests, and do whatever she has to do. I'm not paying them anything. She says she will have to call the doctor. FINE! She tells me I am not the first person to tell her these things about this doctor. OK.......
Then about 5 minutes later, the doctor is on the phone....I don't answer. The machine picks it up...she is raving on the answering machine. Instead I go to the computer. I open the email from her office that had the forms to fill out. I decided to email her. I inform her that we are not returning, we are not going for the tests, her diagnosis is wrong. I am calling our insurance to tell them it is a false diagnosis on the claim (insurance fraud) Sorry that's the medical coder coming out in me. I told her that her office is a pigpen, that the dog should not be roaming all over the office even if it is a theraputic dog. I told her that I think she is very unprofessional in her dress, and I am reporting her to the medical board because she just wants to drug my kid. I told her that her office staff is incompetent....they can't even read their own forms.
In other words, I figured out how to really tick off a doctor....I don't even care!
They call again....I ignore the phone...deal with it lady, we aren't coming back.
So, again I go to the computer....I find her license disipline again. I figure out how to write a complaint. I report our entire story to them. Then I go online to her medical profile, and write a flaming review. AND, I locked the review in, so she can't remove it. Then after some thought, I looked up the Texas State Health Department. I found where I could file a complaint or ask a question. So I filled in the form and just ask them if there should be a dog freely roaming around a doctor's office while patients are being seen? They are supposed to email me back within the next three days. IF they tell me that shouldn't happen, I am going to report her. I am also considering contacting the Fire Marshall. Something tells me that the Health Department, OSHA, HIPPA and the licensing board may be visiting her office in the near future. I'm just saying! If I have my way, she won't be listed on our insurance program either. I may contact the Office of the Insurance Ombudsman also, (they are the big wigs no one likes to deal with)....they deal with insurance fraud. Big fines, and jail time usually result in their visit. As a medical coder, I am obligated to report cases that I have first hand knowledge regarding.
So after all of this, I guess you could say that I am a rebel with a cause.....moral of the story....Don't tick off the Mama Bear!
The rest of the day I was dealing with the school system regarding our off campus PE situation....but that's another chapter for the book.....stay tuned!
I really think I need to go find someone with worse problems than I have right now....it will take my mind off my own.
