How DO You Deal with Doctor's Offices, especially the Nurses and Staff When they just REFUSE to HELP YOU get proper care

It it to the point we sometimes must question "why" our doctors, dentists, an other medical professionals get into the business of "patient care". My family has had several events over the past month, and 99 percent of it all, is due to "lack of doing their job properly"! Of course we had the horrible weather in the area for several days over a couple of weeks prior, but all of that has been behind us since last Friday at the very least. I had to make the TWO trips to Dallas, two days in a row, because my internal pain pump, although "refilled" seemed to not have been "updated" properly. Thus it was not set correctly to give the proper dose of medication and so forth. I had to drive like a bat out of heck... trying to NOT get a ticket, because they were closing early that day, and I had to have it done, due to the fact they were not going to be there from like a Friday to the following Monday. So, I through my teeth in, jumped into some jeans and a shirt and headed that way. Well, I got there within about 45 minutes. Traffic happened to have been good at the time. I told the receptionist I was there, and to let the woman that would get this resolved I was there. Well, they had a waiting room full, but they were coming and going pretty quickly. The nurse came out at least 6 times, and I was sitting in the chair RIGHT BESIDE the door to the inside offices! So, there was no way she could miss me. So, over an hour passed and they were almost ready to go to lunch! Finally the nurse comes out and says, "Gosh I didn't see you!" WE thought you had not made it yet.... duh!!! Really!? So, I go in finally, get that done, and was back on my way home... but rather than being a couple of hours, it was more like 4 since the receptionist never told the woman in the back.
So, the week before that is when we had all of the really terrible snow, ice, sleet, especially in the Dallas area. Many offices including that doctors office was closed off and on during that week, and then the next also... but I had called my medication in - giving them PLENTY of time BEFORE the weather got too bad, to send the script over to the specialty pharmacy so they could get it out in priority mail. That would have came in within a day or two at the latest. Well, I never heard back, and this was like 3 days after leaving messages both with the doctors office and the pharmacy. When I would call the doctors office, all I got was recordings. Yet, they never mentioned they were out due to weather, no one ever called any patients... they just "assumed" we as patients would either "not come in" for appts, etc. Talk about nuts!!! Some people travel several hours away to see him... and to think I go and it takes about an hour... and that is bad enough... so this was like a Wednesday. I called through Friday and never got a soul on the phone, and no one answered any of my messages. On Monday, I call, and leave word again. I had checked with the pharmacy and they had not received a script yet. Then, they were the ones who first told me that the doctors office had been closed off and on for several days, and didn't get many of the scripts out! So, I call AGAIN the following WEDNESDAY, a week later (and I was to run out of medication on that Sat/Sun BEFORE) and finally I get someone to call me, and tell me "Oh it is not your fault, we just weren't open due to the weather"... no duh? Really!!? And not one person thought to try and get a list of patients and call them... it is just nuts... It took a over a week, several phone calls later, and I finally got my medication. So, last week Jim's monthly visit and to pick up scripts was supposed to be I believe Wednesday. Well, he calls because that was the day here the weather was horrible. Snow, Ice, Sleet... both here and Dallas were no place to drive... so he tries to call them and again, no answer, no message saying a word about being open, closed, etc... nothing... it is NOW Wednesday! They promised him last Friday they would mail his scripts to us, and set his appt up for later in the month. We asked them to at least send it priority mail, and oh no they didn't want to be put out that much, and besides they had told us they would be open last Friday afternoon (they usually close on Friday at lunch and only work half a day) so we asked if we could drive up and get the scripts... well NO they were NOT going to stay open Friday afternoon after all... they changed their minds. Okay, well Jim is running out of meds, and they promise they will go out Friday, and we should get the scripts if not Saturday, by Monday at the latest. YESTERDAY!!!! Tuesday! NO SCRIPTS!!!! NaDA! He calls, and the nurse tells him, well we mailed them on Friday, but we think the mail man didn't pick them up until Saturday!!!!!!! You have got to be kidding me!? So, we shall see once again a WEEK later than this should be, actually more than that for him... but those scripts better arrive.... this is insanity.... and if they would have DONE THEIR JOB right away, like with mine... I would have had my medication right on time, no problems... and so would Jim... but it is like they just don't care! Well, if you "hate" your job, or just don't want to do it, and don't care that people can get extremely ill, wind up in the ER, suffer needless pain... for more than just a day...or more than once.... but several times.. and each time I gripe (because it is usually ONE of the nurses that pulls this and we know it) - she does it I think for spite... yet even though I had been told she was being "replaced" that was months and months ago... and she is STILL doing the same thing.... It sucks....


PLUS>>> I can guarantee you, this doctors office has all kinds of signs posted about "what they will and will NOT do" if you don't make an appt on time, or don't call in ahead to cancel, or whatever... they will charge either an entire VISIT, or they may deny you medications, until you "reschedule" AND come in for the visit. Even if you are 10 minutes LATE (usually I am on time, but I have had to call and let them know I am stuck in traffic)... and all kinds of if's, and or but.... if the "patient" does NOT comply!

What about the PATIENTS TIME?! When you go to a physician, especially out of town, that is YOUR time... you get there, you are on time, and then you sit and wait for 5 hours! I've seen it happen to us even right here at our PCP office! He would be hours late, keeping you sitting in a cold cramped room, not even have a nurse to come in and say why.... but that is supposed to be OKAY?! OUR time is just as important as their time... we also have family, jobs, other schedules and appts. in our daily lives also.... it has always been beyond me to see some of the ridiculous stuff the medical profession will state to "patients"... yet it seems we have no "recourse"... if it happens to us....

Another great example just recently for me again. I called my dentist office LAST WEEK! I wanted to make sure I had the "dollar amount" right to finish up my "mini implanted" pins for the bottom dentures. I have the "treatment plan" that was initially drawn up BY THE DENTIST HIMSELF! We in fact, due to "HIS" mistake, paid for 11 MORE TEETH at $147.00 EACH to be pulled after my dentures came in and all of the back teeth were gone! By then, I had no choice! I couldn't just walk away and say forget it. Here are my full set of dentures, that I have to have... already have paid thousands out of pocket to get this far... and yet even though HE LEFT THAT OFF THE TREATMENT PLAN - about CHARGING for EACH TOOTH left in front when my dentures came in!!! I could NOT get them to come down, to give us a break on the price... you add it up $147.00 x 11!!!! NOt Cheap and WELL ABOVE AND BEYOND what I "agreed" to when I signed that treatment plan..of course they "had me over a barrel" by then! If I went somewhere else, I am not sure any other dentist would have touched me since this other one had so far done all of the work!PLUS my new dentures were sitting there, that gosh cost (just themselves) almost $3,000.00!!! And they can't be in unless the rest of those teeth are out! So? I am stuck, whichever way I turn... thus again, they get their way...

So, before the dentures were put in and while he was pulling some of my top molars, a piece of "bone" between my maxillary sinus PASSAGE and MY MOUTH!!! I WOULD GO TO RINSE MY mouth out and WATER would pour out of my nose!!! So, I called, went in and he felt like it would "close itself" off. So, I was put on another month worth of antibiotics, and we "hoped" it would seal itself off. Now, this is also where he had to "split my gums" and then they were sewn back together, and he removed stitches 10 days later... so it was "sealed" with sutures initially.

Well, weeks went by, and nothing stopped. Same thing, between the "air" I could hear coming in and out, and the "feeling" of water from my mouth, to the sinus cavity, to my nose... it kept happening. We waited about 8 weeks, and he decided to go another procedure, to close it off. It was called a "buccal" flap (and here is a very good look at what the heck was going on and can lead to scar tissue in the sinus passage etc...  http://www.surgical-dentistry.info/files/Closure_of_OAF_with_buccal_flap.jpg

So, I went through that and believe me, he gave me "gas" BUT THAT DID NOTHING!! This was a painful scary process sitting in a dentist chair. Honestly, at that time when I think about it, he should have immediately sent me to a "true trained ORAL SURGEON)... one that could have at least given me "twilight" or something... it was nuts... But I went through it...

again stitches, and again taken out 7 to 10 days later... well guess what??? Nothing closed... EVEN WITH my new dentures in, covering it over... (now this had been like 4 months at least) and it didn't fix it..

Well, next is a "bone implant or graft".... and he was sending me to what I thought was an M.D. - a "true oral surgeon" like that can put you to sleep in an "OR" setting... I went and had my wisdom teeth cut out at 19 years old at the Baylor Dental College, and the head Oral Surgeon did my surgery.... and I was expecting to see someone like that... besides if I had gone there, my "insurance" since this was not caused by a "dental" but "physical illness - Sjogren's) may have paid for some of it...

But, he sends me to an idiot about 25 miles away, that is a crazy person. First, they told me NO CHARGE for me to come in and be seen and have a consultation. 2nd I had just had Xrays done of that area less than a week or two before showing the bone piece missing, which was about almost an inch between the maxillary sinus and my mouth.... but he insists on taking another Xray - and then charges me almost 200.00!!! too do NOTHING! HE wanted (HONEST to the Lord) to DO THE EXACT SAME THING MY DENTIST DID THAT FAILED! PLUS he knew nothing about "Sjogren's" and less about autoimmune illnesses, and he acted scared to even touch me, due to all of my "medical issues".... so again here I am STUCK... if I DON'T PAY UP, then there goes my credit score... he absolutely (and he is another one I sat waiting on him until after 5 pm in the evening, and my appt was like at 2pm).... and he could not do a damned thing to help me... PLUS he tried to go ahead and schedule the procedure.. and told me it would cost about 3,500.00!!!!!! NOPE you read that right!!! $3,500.00!!! REALLY!!!???!! You have to be joking right..?

I literally hurried paid, AND ALMOST RAN TO MY CAR... I felt like I was in the "Twilight Zone" of hell with dentists!!!!! Nuts, insane, no compassion, no care... and he is old as Methuselah... he had been a "dentist" for eons...


As I drove back home, late in the evening, my husband and family worried... I finally jumped on the cell, and told my husband I was fine, mad but on my way home....

Again though, no RECOURSE!!! Where are those PATIENT RIGHTS!!?? I sure as hell have not seen them.... and there are more, but these really stick out...

Now back to my "current" dental status. I called last FRIDAY, to get the proper charge, and make an appointment (by the way after about 6 months enough scar tissue filled that hole, and even though the bone is probably still missing, the air and any liquid seems to not be coming through... but it took it that long to seal itself over... and that is insanity... I could have and already had massive issues, with lots of maxillary scar tissue in that sinus passage. I had been told that after having a CT scan of my head and neck... they could see the chronic scarring from one sinus infection after the other when I was a bit younger.... but I could have had a massive infection, and/or all kinds of things can happen when you leave that "open" for bacteria etc to get in.... it could have even caused osteomyelitis... or a bone infection.... that URL above will give you a good look into why that was nothing to mess with....

Okay, it is NOW WEDNESDAY of the following week! The receptionist had the audacity to tell me, "Well, that plan was done almost a year ago" and prices have went up! WHAT!!??? So, she said she would talk to the "office manager" and call me back... well, here it is almost again a week later... no call... nothing...

and again, what is my recourse....???? Those mini pins HAVE to be put in because my bottom dentures WILL NOT STAY IN PLACE without them! So, they have to be "modified" to snap down onto those pins, and until that is also done, my top dentures tend to "move around" if I am not careful. Even with the "Fixodent" powder, and everything like "training" your muscles to help hold them in... if I allow my mouth to dry out in the least way, or I have a long conversation, or if something "gets under" that top denture due to the bottom one shifting around, they both will literally fall out!!

How the hell can I deal with that? Plus I am NOT able to EAT PROPERLY YET! I can't "chew" most stuff, but very little on one side... I have had to stop eating many things that are healthy and I love... many fresh fruit, veggies, just so many things that I think I "might" be able to eat, and there is no way... either the dentures move, or something happens so if they don't line up, then there is no way to chew food... I can't bite anything off. I have to even take lettuce and Jim cuts it up almost like it is chopped parsley or something tiny, just so I can have salad... but things like cucumbers... forget it, can't eat apples, no matter how small I cut them up... it is insanity....

Sjogren's, Dentures and the Ordeal of the nightmare money wise and pain wise to get "new teeth"...

Some Photo's of Me Recently after getting my dentures - I had never been one to smile in any photo's. I always hated my front teeth. I had "genetically" inherited my top two front teeth being "large". My Dad, my half-brother, I, and my son... and I am sure some of the other family on Dad's side all had the same. Plus my bottom teeth were not straight, and I had a 4 wheeler accident at 25 yrs old, that snapped the bottom half of one of those top front teeth off. I had it "built onto" and it stayed like that until earlier last years 2014, when Sjogren's took my teeth, quickly and quietly. It seemed it quietly came into my mouth, and within 4 months literally rotted about 8 of my teeth from the inside out, just leaving a "shell" that then broke off at the gum line. After having that happen about 4 times within 2 months, I went to see another dentist, who did a "surround" type of X-ray that showed just about every tooth I still had were also going to do the same thing. It was just a matter of a brief few months, and all of them would be falling out at the gum line, leaving me to have to have them pulled. So, I began to "weigh" my options that honestly, were slim to none. Even though it is an "illness" that literally rotted my teeth, and had nothing to do with my own dental hygiene etc... I could not get my insurance to pay one red cent on any of the massively expensive and time consuming work it would take to get me over the "Sjogren's rotting teeth" out of my mouth.

You are talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000.00 to actually more like 15 to 2o THOUSAND DOLLARS of dental work. I had to have ALL of the rest of my teeth pulled. Then due to my bone structure , the Sjogren's, the medications I have to take for the RA, Lupus and so forth, had also had its finger in the loss of every tooth in my mouth. That began about February 2014, and I still am not completely finished with the entire ordeal. After pulling sets of 5 to 7 teeth at one sitting, then they made my dentures, and pulled every last one in the top and bottom that had been left up front and visible. So, that was 11 TEETH in ONE sitting, and then they put the DENTURES RIGHT IN OVER THE TOP OF ALL OF THOSE STITCHES AND PULLED TEETH!! Surprisingly, it was not as painful as I thought, but for weeks and weeks and weeks, and even now I struggle about eating. There are certain things that in no way can I bite into or eat. Most everything has to be finely chopped up, even tomato and lettuce. I have to tear most things apart  in extremely tiny pieces. With the dentures I also don't have as much room in my mouth as I used to. Plus, I still lack going back and having "mini implanted little screw like devices" put into my lower jaw in four places, so that my bottom dentures will fit securely on those and not be moving around all the time. There is no way, I can keep them in place, without having those put in. So, that is another at least 3,500.00 for the four little pins and then adjusting the bottom dentures to fit down over those pins when all is finished. It is pure insanity, money wise, time wise, pain wise and the amount and length of time it takes to complete the entire ordeal. So, now after so many years of wishing for "beautiful teeth" so I can smile, I have them. I just never figured it would be because of some disease that ruined my own, and I would have to deal with a full set of "false teeth" or dentures. So, when you "ask" for something, you may get that "wish" fulfilled someday. BUT, remember it may NOT BE the WAY YOU HOPED for IT TO BE! So, here are a few new pics since my dentures have been put in.   

LOL!!!! Notice I STILL have a difficult time "smiling"... so many years of not because I hated my teeth... so breaking the habit is hard to do.  Rhia













                                                  

As another year begins, Lupus, RA, pain, and trying to put those aside to be able to do something Outstanding!

An odd title, to say the least. But, everything about me, that I do, say, feel, see, is always "odd".

I've finally moved stuff around today, and got my stair climber exerciser in my Living Room. I put the stationary bike in the bedroom, because I desperately need an "entire" body workout starting today.

I've allowed myself to eat way too many things I should not, sit on my butt and find other things to occupy my time, and make excuses for not exercising. Thus now I "feel" the weight, see it, and I can tell that due to first of all getting lax on the walking, the weather being too cold, and lack and laziness of going through every day and every meal, mad and disappointed that I am honestly not able to eat as healthy as I usually do. The dentures are truly a huge hindrance depending on what you are trying to eat, thus as I said in a Facebook post, the very things that I loved and are healthy, I now cannot eat... like apples, fresh veggies... and the other things that are low in calories, high in nutrition, and don't let you get saggy and baggy...

Holidays are always difficult. There are so many goodies out there to temp everyone, between, cakes, cookies, candy, and the rest of the things... that temptation gets the best of us. Then, when you can't eat everything you are used to eating... (and you would be totally shocked at what some things are that I can or can't eat with these stupid things in)... then you really just get to the point of not caring what the heck it is... food you just see as food... and the rest of the time you are fighting to keep the stupid bottom denture in or trying to keep them from rubbing a sore spot in your mouth.... and so forth.

So, the entire thing I was SO HOPING would be out of my face by Jan 2015... and yet I am still facing the mess... and not anywhere near through, and certainly not anywhere near wanting to drop that kind of cash into a damned dentists or anyone's lap for sure...

Why does that type of stuff have to be so freaking blazing expensive???? I mean I realize they have an office, and employees and equipment, but hell I don't know many people who could REALLY AFFORD to have this mess done completely and have the "dime" to drop on it all at once... and I look up and it's almost 5:00 pm... where the hell did this day go to????

More to come tomorrow... Off and out for now...