Vacations and Holidays
There is an old adage that says death takes no holidays. Pain and sickness don't take vacations either, and there are other things, if given enough time, I could think of that take no vacations or holidays.
While that may be true, the person I go to for my usual doctoring usually takes his vacation one of the few times a year when I need his help. Even though I don't go often, and he doesn't often take a holiday, I manage to hit that once a year vacation time.
Let me set the scene here. This person is an older doctor who operates an old fashioned 'walk in', donation clinic. He doesn't take insurance, and you are seen in the order you come in the door, unless you have an emergency. At that time someone calls ahead and lets him know you're on your way and he clears the way for you. While this may sound
quaint, it does have its upsides as well as its down sides. It's a good idea to leave a donation that would equal what you would pay at a normal doctor's office. That way you don't get out of the habit of paying the going rate.
He began this clinic years ago. I've been going to him for ten years, but I don't believe he's been doing this for more than twenty years.
Thirty-five years ago he was the only surgeon we had within about a 60+ mile radius. I know that because my sixth child and I had to wait an hour for him to drive from some other hospital to perform an emergency c-section at eleven thirty p.m. I write that so you know he's not some slouch of a doctor.
I'm on thyroid medicine and he and I have had our 'words' about my med level. Some people who know me are quick to say, 'you ought to go to a better doctor.' Insinuating if I pay more money I'll get a better doctor. Let me tell you right here—that isn't necessarily so. I've tried their advice, and I did find a nurse practitioner who allowed me to stay at a higher dosage. That was good, but she didn't put any pieces together to help my health to improve, only left the thyroid level where it had been.
What I at last told my, 'you need to find a better doctor' friend was: with my doctor, if he helps me, or at least listens and does no harm, I leave in his donation box what I think he's worth. When I go to these other so called doctors, whether they help, no matter how good or poor they've been they charge me what they feel they're worth. They don't give me the option to negotiate. And as an aside, most of them have a highly inflated sense of their self worth.
