Originally Posted by
Velo Vol
I've already had two facepalms from a nurse and a doctor today
Hoo boy. I just pulled up the "notes" from the appointment on the patient portal, from the nurse:
I spent greater than 30 minutes with 50% face to face discussing treatment plan along with risks vs benefits along with critical decision making, reviewing labs, data, diagnostics and all pertinent information related to patient’s diagnosis.
Reality: I go in and see yet another new nurse. This one is literally new to the group--she's not even on the website. I googled her and didn't find much, but I don't think she was in rheumatology before.
She comes in and asks these general questions because she's never seen me before. No idea what my arthritis is like. She gets my dosage wrong. Asks me if I want more MTX (even though I'm pretty sure I'm taking the maximum recommended amount). Asks if I exercise (SMH). When I tell her the drug effects don't last the full six weeks she asks me if I want to switch to something else. Am I a doctor? Why am I here?
I was planning on asking this anyway, but the appointment painfully illustrated the problem. So I ask "wut is going on here? Why have I not seen the actual doctor in a year? Why do I keep seeing new people every time? When there's no continuity of care I waste most of the appointment time rehashing all the basic stuff."
She tried to tell me that whoever saw me would be asking the same questions anyway.
"Do you exercise?" SMH
Anyway, after my complaining the doctor came into the infusion room, looked at my joints for a minute, and kind of apologized that I hadn't seen him earlier this year. He tried to blame it on COVID.
I'm still not going to see him until January.