[classicman]

OK, life isn't difficult enough with the constant doctors appointments, dealing with school staff who no longer have a clue (since they let the one teacher who was awesome leave for another position at another school district) and simply enable the current situation instead of PUSHING for improvement and a whole host of a million little things that virtually no one else understands. sigh - anyway ...

Late last year I decided that we were going to try and reduce some of the meds that my son is on.
Called the endocrinologist who monitors his sodium levels among other things to discuss. I wanted to have some tests done to have a baseline of his status for future comparison. They refused to discuss over the phone - gotta see the patient in person BEFORE they'd order the tests.
So we make the appointment & go to the doc mid November. She says: Oh, we cannot support that decision (to reduce meds) without doing a host of blood & urine tests first. Grrrrrrrrrr - THATS WHAT I CALLED FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE! (Bites tongue) Oooook! We leave unsatisfied and disgruntled AND had to pay a larger copay as his medicare no longer covers as much as it used to.
Call the testing facility & set the appointment for a few weeks out. I pull him out of school to go get the blood & urine work. Major hassles in communication, long lines & asst other BS till finally the blood is drawn. (higher copay here too) Call the doc back and schedule ANOTHER appointment. Nothing available till Feb. (WTF???)
Wait another three months and finally go see the doc again in March. Explain the entire situation all over again.
She says "I have never, in all my years (older woman) seen anyone successfully reduce their dosage ... blah blah blah..." I tuned her out at that point. WTFE lady. Left. Oh had to pay the increased copay AGAIN.
(Mentally added her to the list of medical professionals to prove wrong)
On the ride home I told him - We're gonna try something, you up for it? etc. Rinse repeat dozens of times over the next few days/week.
Finally, I think he's got it and he's on board. We had the tests done and have the baseline. It was a frikkin hassle, but we got the data we wanted.
I was to call in August for the 6 month appointment and followup.
I decided to call to today to get the doc to order the lab tests so that we could have them to discuss at our appt. in Sept. (seemed logical) Many hassles, spoke with three different people until I finally get the story. She is out for the month of July and is leaving the practice in August. WTF initially, then I thought 'great' we can have a more proactive and responsive doc ... maybe. Schedule an appointment with his NEW endocrinologist and ask about having new tests done so we can compare the data from Feb with the ones I'll have done in Aug. . . Looooong pause with papers shuffling. We have no record of any tests from Feb. We have something from April of 2011. Are you effing kidding me? She looks again. Sorry, no records here. At least we got the appt. set.
Call the lab (THE SAME LAB) to set an appt and to check on the ones from Feb. We have no lab work from Feb. We do have some from last Nov. though. WHAT??? We didn't have any lab work done in Nov. '11 WTF?
Long pause, put on hold. Blah blah blah. Look, just send EVERYTHING you have over the last three years to Doc X. Oh, sorry we cannot do that without the patient approval. Also, we don't save that info for that long.
I had to hang up the phone. I was this >< close to going ballistic.
I'll take a breath and reflect upon the hours wasted and try again tomorrow. Maybe the lab fairies will find the info by then.
My groove, it is officially scorched!