Sheer Lunacy

I went to a doctor's appointment today.  A specialist.  It was a very strange experience.

First of all, yesterday the office called to remind me of my appointment and they said if I have a cough, fever, or trouble breathing that I need to reschedule.  Then they stated that they will be taking temperatures at the door and making everyone use hand sanitizer.  This is just to get in the office. Oh and they strongly recommended that non-patients wait in their cars.  But they were allowing one person to accompany each patient, if necessary.

This morning the van wouldn't start.  Lisa tried two different jump starter machines and neither worked.  So I told her just to use her car and it worked.  But then we were 20 minutes late.  But we were actually only five minutes late because they told us to get there 15 minutes early.  So it all worked out.  But it didn't start out very good.  And went downhill from there.

So we get there to the office.  Take the elevator up to the second floor.  Go down the hallway to the office.  Outside is waiting a man in near hazmat attire -- gowned, gloved, masked.  He is sitting next to a table with medical supplies -- thermometer, hand sanitizer, gloves, etc. So he tells us he needs to take our temperature before we can go in.  We both passed and were given a Post-it note with our temperatures on it as an admittance ticket to give to the receptionist.  Then after filling out a bunch of paperwork to assure them that we do not have symptoms of COVID-19 we were allowed to sit in the waiting room.  We were the only ones there.

On the door from the waiting room to the treatment rooms there was a sign stating that only patients were allowed back beyond that door.  Lisa asked them if she could come back with me because I had paperwork to show the doctor.  The medical assistant just took the paperwork from Lisa and I had to go back myself.  She told me to back in the room because it was so small.  Which was difficult because I can't see behind me.  Then after she asked me some questions and took my pulse and blood pressure she said the doctor will be in, closed the door, and left.

So I was left in this tiny room all alone with the door closed and no way to get out.  I thought it might take five minutes.  After about 20 minutes I was starting to get worried thinking that they forgot about me and I was trapped in a tiny closed room while they went to lunch.  What if I would have stroked out or had a myocardial infarction from the stress?  Or suffered any emergency or even perished?

Leaving a quadriplegic patient alone in a closed room for 30+ minutes is a lot riskier than the infinitesimally minuscule chance that my sister and caregiver will give the paranoid medical staff a flulike virus.  But, what else should I expect from paranoid selfish liberals in full panic mode?

Heaven forbid they actually think about what's best for the patient.

The only thing that kept me from ramming my chair into the door to alert somebody that I was trapped inside was knowing that Lisa was outside waiting for me and would come get me after a while.  Seriously I was about to start bawling right before the doctor came in.  Just thinking of how stupid it was to imprison me without a way out.  It's a good thing I'm not claustrophobic or I would have been in full panic mode.  But unlike them, with actual good reason.

So the doctor finally comes in an hour after my appointment time.  She's wearing a surgical mask with face guard like I used to wear in surgery or doing autopsies.  As if I'm going to spew bodily fluids on her during our purely verbal appointment.  First of all she had the mask under her nose.  Secondly she kept touching and adjusting the mask every 5 seconds.  With her bare hands.  No gloves.  And this is a medical doctor trained in aseptic technique?  What a joke!  So basically what she was doing was concentrating all of the germs on her mask and by touching it, transferring the concentrated germs onto her hands.  Then she was using the computer and writing stuff down and touching my personal paperwork I gave her to look at, which I was getting back.

After I told her some of my symptoms I was experiencing she asked me why I thought I was having those symptoms.  I had to clarify her question because it was so strange.  Isn't that why I am there to see her?  She's the medical specialist.  So she basically told me she doesn't know how to help me and gives me a few dietary changes to try if I want to.  She suggested a diagnostic procedure -- which is exactly what I knew she would do.  So I inquired about this procedure and the logistics of it.  She told me because of the current pandemic that she would not schedule it for a few months to protect me.  I told her that I am not scared of COVID-19 and I think it is being blown way out of proportion.  She told me she disagrees with me and thinks it's going to get bad.  Right then I knew she was a paranoid liberal.  I used to think she was a fairly good doctor.  But after today, I don't think she's good at all.  She even told me to trust the other doctor more than her about her specialty. 

I never had much confidence in medical doctors and the like.  Training in medicine and working with many different medical professionals, especially doctors, made me realize how little they actually know.  And now it's clear that they are easily swayed by the media and peer pressure.  And apparently have easily forgotten much of their training in microbiology and asepsis.

This whole pandemic crisis is sheer lunacy.  People are as mad as hatters.  Just going to a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment to see a specialist completely unrelated to infectious disease is like going into an infectious disease war zone. Even the medical doctors are acting as if we are in the Apocalypse.  Sheer lunacy I tell you!  Like I said before, if I was living it, I wouldn't believe it.

That's my two cents.