This Is Ridiculous

[ladysprite]

There is something deeply, fundamentally, enragingly wrong with our medical system.

I admit, I hate going to the doctor, and I will postpone it as long as humanly possible; usually longer than is safe or rational. But a large part of that comes from the fact that, on the rare occasions that I get up the guts and activation energy to go, it turns out that I can't get an appointment anywhere for love or money.

This is the second time I've tried to get an appointment with a dermatologist, mostly because I've finally hit the 'actually worried' stage about the funny-looking mole on my back. It's tiny, but it has every single hallmark of being something dangerous. Unfortunately, the soonest any of the local doctors can see me is the end of September.

This is better than last time I tried, though, for another problem - when out of four different clinics, not a one could get me in in less than two months. That time, I just gave up and didn't go at all. And, to be completely honest, that's what I think I'm going to do right now. By the time I get in anywhere, if it's malignant it'll be metastasized beyond treatability - and if it's benign, I will have wasted a lot of time and frustration for nothing. So honestly, there's absolutely no point in going. Screw it.

And this is all triply frustrating in the face of my day job, where people call at 10am, demand an appointment before 2pm the same day, pitch a screaming fit at the receptionist if we can't do it, make me cancel my lunch break to see them for their "emergency" (usually either vaccines or a problem that's been going on for at least 3 weeks), and then ultimately fail to show up, deciding that they didn't feel like coming after all.

Right now, I hate the world. MD's most of all.

Comments

[citabria]

I'm amazed that you're facing those delays while living so close to Boston. One of the things I really liked about living near/working in NYC was that I rarely needed to wait more than 2 weeks for an appointment -- even with a doctor I'd never seen before. Usually, if I did need to wait more than 2 weeks, it was because my schedule was difficult to schedule around. The only exception was my gynecologist -- I'm used to up to 6-month waits, except in an emergency.

It seems to me that, for a mole, it's worth it to schedule the appointment. You can tell them that you're concerned and that you'd be interested in coming in sooner if someone cancels -- people always do. A visit to a dermatologist is rarely considered an emergency, unless you're directly referred by your doctor, and even then there's usually a wait -- I doubt that Ds hold open as many "emergency appointments" as other specialists do. So, even though I understand your frustration, I'd suggest breathing deeply, calling back, and scheduling the appointment. Just to be safe.

[mindways]

In my experience, it varies drastically by office. Some doctors around here are scheduling 8 months out, some 3-4 days out.

(By type of appointment, too - I have to schedule ~3 months in advance with my PCP's office for my yearly physical, but can generally get an appointment in 1-3 days to check out an acute problem.)