Thursday, October 11, 2007

We need a new doctor....

Another disappointing visit with Dr. W. Sometimes I swear that he has no clue what's going on, like I'm just some random woman who walked into his clinic for the first time with her snotty kid.

When I mentioned some of the symptoms that I had talked about with the nurse on the phone, he wasn't too concerned at all. Until I did an impression of how Chance had been breathing. Then he smartened up a bit but didn't really give much information. I also asked for a weight and length check, which he did grudgingly (weight only, on the big scale b/c Chance is so wiggly. Chance is 22 lbs.). The whole time he grumbled that he was in a rush to get away to his walk-in clinic at 5 PM. Chance's appointment was at 4 PM. I was there at 3:55 PM. I woke Chance up early to get there on time. We waited until 4:20 PM.

Some of my other experiences with Dr. W:

* he arrived 45 minutes late for an early morning appointment, claiming that he thought it was Sunday, not Saturday.
* he has written the wrong prescription for me, so when I got to the pharmacist, he gave me an antifungal instead of a corticosteriod. Meanwhile my eczema RAGED until I got the right prescription.
* he has forgotten to bring equipment in specifically required for a visit (Doppler to hear Chance's heartbeat when I was pregnant). Cam had taken time off work to come with me. He made patronizing comments when I shed horomone-crazed tears of disappointment.
* he always admits me to his office, then makes me wait a few minutes while he finishes up the last patient's records. Awkward silence.
* he exclaimed in exasperation, "didn't you think of wearing something else to this appointment???" when I came in to see him about a rash on my calf. I was wearing nylons.
* he always spends the first few minutes of our visit jovially talking about his grand-daughter, who is the same age as Chance. Then he rushes me through our visit.
* normally there has never been a problem with waiting to see Dr. W, until this year when his practice started to expand. Now we can almost always count on a 15-20 minute wait. Not so easy while toting around an active toddler.
* he poked (!!) my throbbing red breast when I had mastitis and wrote me a prescription for a topical ointment. When I came back 5 days later and the red patch had spread to 4 times its original size, he wrote me a prescription for the wrong kind of antibiotic. I had to wait 2 weeks to get into the Calgary Breastfeeding Clinic to get a proper antibiotic.


I think I'm going to start looking for a new physician.

1 comment:

Mouland Family said...

this sounds like a VERY frustrating experience Dani. Be on the look out for a new Dr - you can use the Calgary Health Region site to find a Dr - the update it about once a month. Good luck - I understand!