Every provider or clinic has an appointment calendar to keep track of when patients are coming in.  By looking at this calendar they can check availability for new appointments, reschedule appointments and manage their workload.  For those managing the schedule it is a daily routine to juggle the requests, accommodate emergencies and communicate information to back to the patient.  So I understand how one could forget the amount of planning, patience, fear, finance and expectations involved to make each appointment.  But on the other side of those calendars,  there are real people, who are really impacted.

Planning

Whether it is you, your child, your family member or friend, it takes a coordinated effort for most of us to get to a provider appointment or procedure.  There are so many details which must be tended to so all goes smoothly.  Things like alternate transportation for your kids, managing the impact of missing time at work, preparing meals in advance or perhaps getting a ride to the medical facility.  Simply committing to a time that disrupts your schedule the least is no small task.

Patience

Seeing your provider is a test to even the most serene soul.  I advise many deep breaths and perhaps some meditation to deal with forms, waiting rooms, waiting  IN the room and the worst of all, waiting on hold to schedule the appointment or for someone to call you back.  The process is one in which you are literally at the mercy of those in charge of  when your turn will come.

Fear

Depending upon why you need to see your provider, you may experience fear about a new diagnosis, fear of being judged for not doing “good enough”, fear of what the procedure will reveal or fear of what your life will look like on the other side of your encounter with your provider.  Fear may show up due to fasting as you try to avoid eating and hypoglycemia for lab work.  Fear is not unique to you, the patient, but it extends to your family.  Often it requires mental preparation to ready yourself for what lie ahead.  The unknown is scary.

Finance

Every visit to seek medical care comes with a price tag.  Depending on your insurance coverage (or lack thereof), your deductible, your out of pocket maximums and all the other fun fees that mysteriously appear on your bill, needing care is not cheap.   Don’t forget possible missed wages from missing work or burning a vacation day to deal with your health issues.

Expectations

As I said in a mini post last year, “Expectations are a B*tch“.  Sorry for the harsh language, but this last item, is the worst.   I think sometimes in effort to minimize the pain, the inconvenience or just because something slipped through the cracks, folks on the provider side may gloss over very important details.  So you walk in expecting to see the doctor about 9:00 for your 9:00 appointment, but you don’t lay eyes on them until 10:30.  Or that you should need someone to pick you up at noon but you aren’t discharged until 3:30 pm.  Or that someone forgot to put your  Wednesday, 11:00 procedure on the schedule and you don’t find out until you show up fasting on Wednesday at 9am.

To the scheduler it is a name in a time slot on a particular day.  So easy to move things around or offer a lighthearted “sorry” for their mishap, oblivious to the disruption, frustration, fear, and hardship they caused.    Managing a chronic illness or injury is not an easy job, but we soldier onward.  Because we must.  And we look for the silver lining.

Peace,

Patricia