Time that I wake up from that long winters nap. Perfecting the art of laziness at our southern get-away, the buds of Spring draw us north. Our Alabama Gulf Coast get-away was more of a soggy bog with more rain than California has seen in a decade. Weather aside, a steady stream of visitors kept us busy and entertained. Just in case anyone wants to know who these folks were ... Bill, June, Tom, Mary, John, Marsha, Paul, Marlene, John, Linda, Jim, Carol, Denny, Marilynn, Roger, Rita, Ken, Jerry, Kathy, Bob, Judy, Ben, Vanessa, Leigh, Scott, Austin, Gay, Jake, Dave, Cande, John, Linda, Ron, Jan, Tom and Sue. I'll let you fill in the last names but be it a day or a month, we were very pleased that they all took some of their winter vacation time to spend with us. Though we didn't make it to all the local resturants, we did show em' how 'snow birds' can spend money on food and drink.
In between friends visits, I did have some left-over medical issues that needed so attention so I made my foray into the Florida-Alabama medical community. First was to schedule a visit with a Florida pulmonologist. However the first one I called demanded a whole flotilla of tests even before seeing him. I told him I just had completed those same tests and had all the results but that didn't matter. He wanted his labs results. I quickly see how us snow birds occasionally get screwed. I checked this guy off the list first. The next one I worked with was in Alabama. Made an appointment and on the day of the appointment was called and asked if I could come in immediately, about 3 hrs early. I said I could but it would take me about 45 minutes to get there. When I arrived, I filled out all the paperwork, had blood pressure taken and was told to wait in the lounge. About 10 minutes later was asked to take a one hour lunch break as they were running late. I returned one hour later and was told to wait a few minutes more. Finally I was led to an exam room and seated. Better than an hour passed and I sent a text to Sharon (whose waiting in the car) that I'd give them 15 more minutes before leaving. The time passed and I got up a prepared to walk out. The receptionist stopped me and wanted to know what I was doing. "Leaving", I said. "I've been waiting 3 hours and I've got other things to do". "But wait!" She said. "You can't do that!" "The doctor will see you next. He usually spends a lot of time with his patients, but you are next". I explained to her that yes I can leave and that I had other commitments and, by-the-way, I didn't appreciate waiting three hours to see him. Before her jaw dropped to the floor or she attempted to tackle me I headed for the parking lot ... Moderately pissed off, but gone.
I expected some sort of an apologetic phone call later, asking me to re-schedule or a just bill for sitting in their offices for three hours, but didn't get either. Instead, about 10 days later I received a scathing letter from the doctor explaining that he would not jeopardize his local patients to treat demanding "snow birds" who think they can demand treatment whenever they show up. And don't worry about coming back to the office as I wasn't welcome plus if I replied to the letter it would not be read and would immediately be thrown out. Southern hospitality at its finest I guess. And finally the next pulmonologist I visited, shortly after entering the examining room got out his prescription pad and wrote me a script for a drug I had never taken and before he even reading my medical history. He said most people my age should be taking this cholesterol medicine and all his patients are on it. I cancelled all future visits.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Maybe I should stay the hell away from doctors in the south as I'm apparently tainted in some way. Thankfully I'm recovering on my own with help from my local nurse Sharon and my remote nurse Susie.
Okay, enough! Us oldsters need to just stop talking about our medical issues. I know it's the one thing we all have in common, but this is it for me.
In the next installment I'll have some comments on our recent trip to a maintenance RV rally in Goshen Indiana. Pictures too! If you have the right brand of coach, it's THE place to be.
Till then, we're still livin' the dream. Now in Spring has sprung ... Michigan.
Phil
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