Hilarity at the doc’s office…my mistaken identity!

F

Fyrefox

Well-known Member
I went to my doc’s office yesterday for my annual check-up. The intake nurse asked me for a urine sample. This was unusual, as I wasn’t there for a drug screen, and didn’t have symptoms of a UTI or STD, which are usually why urine tests are performed. But I thought maybe it was some new thing they were doing routinely, and I tend to be compliant at a doctor’s office. They’re the professionals, right? Ours not to reason why, ours just to do and die...Rudyard Kipling, The Charge of the Light Brigade.

So like a good boy, I went into their bathroom, and peed into a tiny vial, no small task in itself, and not a life skill I routinely practice. Afterwards in the exam room, the same nurse asked me what I was “experiencing.” I told her nothing, really, I was just there for my annual check-up, and to go over my lab test results required for such. The nurse got a funny look on her face, then realized that she had confused me with another guy with the same first name as myself who was apparently there at the same time for problems they would have wanted urine for.

Now I could have made trouble for the nurse and complained, but hey, we’re all human, and make mistakes. I laughed about it in the office. At least the nurse hadn’t wanted to draw blood.

Then to add insult to injury, I was kept waiting 45 minutes in the exam room thereafter past my appointment time waiting for my actual doctor to appear. Good thing that I anticipated this, and had brought my e-reader along! So much of life is in how you perceive and frame it… 😸
 

Not only is it difficult to pee into a small vial, the instructions are even more ridiculous.
First pee into the toilet, then stop & pee into the vial.
Oh, what fun - and what a challenge..... :giggle:
 
Oh, yeah, the wait in the exam room...... Your appointment is for 1:00 and they call you in at 1:05. Well, so far, so good. But then you sit in the exam room, the coooold exam room for another 30 minutes, wearing nothing but a glorified paper towel. If there's anything to read in there, it'll be Neurology Monthly or Your Diabetes Magazine or if you're lucky, a year-old golf magazine. You're usually reduced to reading the informational charts on the wall....."Early Signs of Colon Cancer" or you're REALLY lucky, like I was at my last appointment, a nice full-color chart of the different kinds of poop.

This allows them to say their appointments are "on time" because, you know, you did get into the exam room only five minutes late.
 
jujube said:
This allows them to say their appointments are "on time" because, you know, you did get into the exam room only five minutes late.
Click to expand...
What bugs me is they make the appointment for 11:00 and then say they want me to be there 15 minutes early. If they wanted me at 10:45 why didn't they make my appointment for 10:45? Isn't that what "appointment" means? The time we're supposed to be somewhere?
 
The receptionist in the doctor's office recorded my phone number wrong: just 9 digits instead of 10. In this country, all phone numbers have 10 digits (she is from another country, but she should know better). She, in turn, gave the wrong number to the labs, so they couldn't reach me to arrange an appointment. No laughing matter.

One of many reasons why I hardly ever seek medical help.
 
You're lucky. When we lived in Southeast Florida, my mother was scheduled for very routine surgery. Her first and last names were a few letters away from those of another patient. It was not until I reconfirmed her surgery that I found out they were planning on performing heart surgery on her when she didn't need it.:oops:
 
My husband has a rather common name and we kept getting doctor bills in the mail for another patient with the same name. After 3 visits to the office to return the bills they finally figured it out.
 

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