Kristen's Visit to the Doctor

I just got back from a neurologist’s office with Kristen today. I don’t remember his name but let’s just call him Dr. A.R.Rogant. Or maybe Dr. M.Y. Shitdoesnotstink. Needless to say, he didn’t help us at all.

We got there at 8:55, for our 9:00 appointment. He had us wait for 20 minutes although there was nobody else in the office. I know this because we had to leave our shoes at the door so that we wouldn’t mess up his new carpet and our shoes were the only ones in sight. So, there we sat for twenty minutes, both of us barefoot, patiently waiting for the good doctor to call us when he was ready.

When we entered his hallowed personal corner office, he looked at me and said, “This is Kristen?” I smiled and answered yes. He then asked Kristen to explain why she was there and as she is in the habit of doing, suggested that I give the history. Dr. A. R. Rogant believes that because it is Kristen’s problem she should be the one talking and he told us so. We decided to ignore his wise counsel and I proceeded to give a brief history of what has been going on for the last 3 years. He then asked Kristen a number of questions and she answered them all for him as best she could. We assume she passed the blood pressure test although Dr. A.R. didn’t say anything about it. I also assumed that she passed the tests for dizziness because she did them successfully and didn’t fall over once. Her reflexes are excellent. (He didn’t say that but I could tell) He typed something into his computer while Kristen sat with the blood pressure cuff on her arm and I sat on my chair wondering if I could sit on my feet because they were getting cold.

He asked her if she drinks coffee or coke (No). He asked if she liked school and how her grades were (Good and honour roll). Medications? No. Birth control? No. He asked if she ever tried taking Advil when the episodes happen and she told him that she had tried it but it didn’t help. The fact is, Kristen is in good general health, does well at school and to look at her, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong.

It was then that the good Doctor looked at her and said something like, “So this really is a minor inconvenience, isn’t it.” There was a moment of dead silence. I looked at Kristen and the shock in her eyes, I'm sure, mirrored mine.

Being the tolerant, friendly Canadians that we are, we assured him calmly that this was NOT a minor inconvenience and that this was affecting her life (and mine) in a pretty negative way. I told him that she had missed a lot of school and in Grade 9 missed a number of her exams and I knew she couldn’t do that in Grade 12. I wanted to yell at him: “THIS IS A BIG PROBLEM! A VERY BIG PROBLEM. WHY DO YOU THINK I WOULD BE WASTING MY VALUABLE TIME IN THE OFFICE OF A SHITHEAD LIKE YOU!” But, I controlled myself.

Dr. M.Y. Shitdoesnotstink then suggested that it could be a type of migraine. That was the most intelligent thing he said during the entire appointment. He told her to avoid caffeine and take a couple of Advil. I was thinking of suggesting that perhaps he needed to see an ear specialist to see if his hearing was good because she already told him that SHE DOESN’T CONSUME CAFFEINE AND ADVIL DOESN’T WORK! HOW MANY YEARS DID YOU HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL TO BECOME A NEUROLOGIST WHO PRESCRIBES ADVIL TO A DESPERATE TEEN?

Thankfully he didn’t try to shake my hand when we left-probably thought that touching me was beneath him. Besides, he gave me the heeby geebies and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

As soon as we got out of the door, Kristen announced in no uncertain terms that she would never, ever see him again and I concurred. NOT IF HE WAS THE LAST DOCTOR ON EARTH!

We are none the worse for wear after this episode and we are grateful that other doctors and specialists we have seen are very different. As a matter of fact, we saw a naturopathic doctor a couple of weeks ago and he was wonderful! I’ll write more about that another time, when we get the results of a test he recommended.

The health care system here in Manitoba has flaws, there is no doubt about that. But I have found in almost all cases, the people we have dealt with are friendly and compassionate. Even my own doctor, who seems rushed most of the time, is a kind woman. Unfortunately, it is people like Dr. A.R.Rogant who give many of the health care professionals a bad name. I’m glad I won’t have to deal with him ever again.