Tolerance

I haven't been feeling very tolerant recently. What I mean by tolerant is being able to put up with other people's crap. It is not my problem if some people are acting pretty stupid around me, or are rude, or are just plain dumb. I do not feel the need to put up with it. I have enough going on in my life that I can be a bit cranky when dealing with others.

As a friend was telling me recently, I need to keep my mouth shut and not tell people they are driving me crazy. I know its not my business what someone else wants to do but sometimes I can be a bit 'outspoken' (as I hear peals of laughter in my head from the people who know me best). I recognize that I do think I can come across as a bit bitchy at times. I do try to be a nice person but sometimes I just can't keep my mouth shut.

Especially if someone is really pushing my buttons, then I get really cranky. Here's an example: a group of friends are trying to get together for lunch and a museum. Around here, many public libraries have discount museum passes available on a first come/first served basis. I don't mind getting the museum passes, because I am cheap and it saves me money.

But one friend (and I am not making this up) called me, texted me, called my library, and texted me again in a five minute period to let me know that my library has the pass available for the day we want them, they were available, and could I reserve it. I didn't require babysitting and I sent her a text back to tell her that. That all got under my skin for some reason. Why did she need to do so much? All I needed was to be asked to see if I could get the museum pass.

Am I over-reacting? I don't think so. It made me feel that she thought I was incapable of checking on the availability of the pass and reserving it. Of course my inner child made me wait several days to actually reserve the pass to make her sweat if she decided to micromanage me and check again at the library.

I don't need micromanaging. I am quite capable of taking care of things myself. Allow me to feel a bit intolerant for a bit here.

I got fired by my eye doctor

I consider myself a proactive and vocal patient. With my health I see so many doctors and spend a lot of time trying to make sure everyone is on the same page. They all need to be aware of my ailments, medications, and allergies. I have so many ailments that I often present issues to all my doctors they do not see every day. My medical care is important to me and I want a medical team which cares about me.

I have never been a huge fan of my eye doctor. I started going to them because of convenience. I have never felt they had the patient's interest in mind, they were really out for the money. At every visit I felt like I was part of a cattle call.

When you arrive, you stand in line and are greeted by one of four receptionists. They are okay not great. Never very social and treat you as just another number. Then you go sit in the big waiting room, unless you are there for contacts which has a different waiting room or for the other doctor who is on the first floor. Then you sit and wait to be called. No one talks. Every one sits there quietly. Its not fun. And you always have to wait for a good while before being called. Its just a pain in the butt.

Once they finally call you, you get your eyes quickly checked by a tech and then sit in the hall. Then another tech finally calls you again and you are seen for a few minutes. Your vision is checked and eyes are dilated if necessary. Then you go back and sit again. Finally you see an eye doctor for about five minutes.

I know they have to wait for your eyes to be dilated. But all the waits add up. I have never been out of there in less than 1.5 hours. And I never feel like I got individualized care while there.

My most recent visit was earlier this month. I was pretty peeved. I arrived on time and greeted by an uncaring receptionist. Then I went and sat down in the first waiting room for half an hour. I went to ask if they were running late as I had been waiting so long and their response was 'you are the next one to be called'. I asked if they always ran late and they just said 'you are the next one to be called'. I asked if they ever told patients when they checked in that they were running late and they said 'you are the next one to be called'.

I gave up and went back to the waiting room and said loudly something along the lines of they didn't seem to care if patients waited a long time. The woman next to me said quietly 'you always have to wait, they are double booked'. I said that's just rude.

So when I saw the first tech, I said something to her and she said she wasn't aware of any delays. Then when I saw the second tech, I asked her and she said she would speak to the office manager. Finally when I saw the doctor, I said something to him. He seemed surprised that waits were that long and said he would look into it.

As always, I review everything, especially things that annoy me. So I Yelped it and gave them 2 stars. Then I got a follow up email from them and a call from their operations person. She did ask me why I was upset and said she would look into it. She mentioned something about the eye doctor was concerned I had written an online review. I thought that was resolved.

Then yesterday I got a letter in the mail stating that I should look for a new ophthalmologist. So I updated my Yelp review and gave them 1 star.

I was ready to find a new eye doctor after my unpleasant last visit. And they are just forcing my hand in this. But I still do not think they are about their patients.

I hate moving, I hate moving, I hate moving

I really hate moving. When we bought our house we said we will never move again. Then we decided that no matter how much we hate moving we really did need to move. That was more than three months ago.

Half my life is packed in boxes. I can't find anything. I have too much packing to do and I physically have problems packing. Arthritis is not your friend when you need to pack and move boxes around.

One of my doctors gave me a lecture as soon as I said we were moving on not moving boxes. But if I pack a bunch of boxes do I just make a circle around me of packed boxes until my husband comes home and moves them around? Not very logical.

Part of moving that I really hate are dealing with multiple groups of people. Because our mortgage lender is a PITA, they are requiring us to use one of their selected list of attorney for the closing on the purchase of our new home. We had already arranged to use our attorney for the sale of our current home. This means I am dealing with two attorneys, plus the attorney for the buyers of our home, plus our realtors (who are very nice and keeping our sanity), and the (damn) bank.

Since we have two attorneys, I get to play 'communicator' between them. It would have been so much easier if we only had one attorney. But it makes the bank happy so they will lend us the necessary money. This is in addition to utilities and a million address changes.

We are finally getting to the countdown of moving. But between now and then are the holidays. This just complicates things even more. And I have to shift around doctor appointments so I am available for closings and all that. I really hate moving.

Getting even or driving your doctor crazy

We all try to be a good patient. We try to eat better foods, less red meat more chicken and fish, get 8 hours of sleep, drink less, brush our teeth, floss, yadayadayada...

Huffington Post conveniently posted a list of 9 things that drive your doctor crazy:

1. Dr Google - we all know Dr Google is an idiot.
2. Refusal to vaccinate - which has caused more problems later on
3. Demanding antibiotics - they don't fix everything
4. Claiming you are eating less and working out more but still not losing weight - obviously you aren't
5. Asking for a quick fix - there is no magic pill (I know this because I ask regularly)
6. I only eat low fat - low fat is good but some fat isn't bad
7. I don't have time to come in - really? You have time to go to the gym, work, out to dinner, etc.
8. I can keep smoking as long as I exercise - They don't get it
9. I don't eat carbs - don't demonize a whole group of food. Whole grains are carbs but are good ones.

Now that I have this in mind, I can get ready for my rheumatologist appointment this morning. I haven't asked Dr Google much about RA recently so I am probably good. The rest probably won't come up. Except for the magic pill issue... I just ask to make sure nothing has slipped by me.

But I have 1:58 left to come up with my list of questions for her.