Irritants

Trev's one year is about up on his last physical. Scouts require one every year for their camping experiences. The school only needs one every two years for sports. I thought I would cover both in one stop. Trevor has been seen several times in the last few months for his toe. He was weighed and prodded. His lungs were checked. I figured I could get the doctor that saw him sign off. No such luck. Bureaucracy is strong in the medical world. They want every cent.

Because Trevor was seen not by his primary physician , but by a physician's assistant, the PA can not sign off on the forms. The primary doctor has not seen Trevor. She was out on maturity leave when we were assigned her. No one else can sign.

I had just stopped in at the clinic after  picking Trevor up at school, thinking I could drop the forms off at the clinic to be signed and mailed back to me or called when they were signed for me to come back for the forms. It wasn't that easy of course. After arguing with the front desk clerk that the last Doctor to see Trevor could sign off only to find out that since that was only a PA, though we call them doctors, that Doctor can't sign the forms.     Trevor has to make an appointment with his primary physician, who he has never met,  to get the forms signed. I make the appointment for an hour later as Trevor is with me at the moment,  only to find out that that was a 15 minute slot and since Trevor is  not an  established patient, even though he has been seen numerous times by other doctors in the clinic, His primary  Doctor needs a half hour slot. A half hour is not available until Friday.

 As you know, for insurance,  the first $5000 on each of us is out of our own pockets, until the family max is met. I  have to pay for a Doctor's visit to get these forms signed, even though Trevor has been seen multiple times by physicians for his foot recently, already. Just paid almost $500 towards his medical bills. To say the least I was not happy. I was pretty peeved. But without this form Trevor can't go on the next scouting overnight, when it comes up. His medical form says he was last seen May 18, of last year. A year is up.   It is all a bunch of BS.

I had also been a little frustrated with Trevor as he had called today and asked me to bring  his football camp forms to school, as today was the last day, and they were mailing in the registrations. The forms  had been sitting for a month on the dining room table for him to take to school.

When I got to school I talked to one of his teachers who informed me that though I have been dropping Trevor an hour early in the mornings for him to do work to keep up in her class, he has been leaving before the time was over, to catch breakfast with his friends in the cafeteria. He eats breakfast at home. Riley makes waffles almost every day for them. He has been getting second breakfasts like a hobbit.

I was not in a good mood after that conversation with Trevor's teacher,  to then be told by the Doctor's office that I needed to pay for an appointment and schedule a visit so Trevor could get a couple of forms signed to participate in camp.

Life was not meant to be this difficult. The boy is healthy. He has been inspected several times. Our old clinic would have just passed the form back to the Doctor who last saw him and be signed off. I could have moved on to my next project, what ever that might be. Instead, on Friday, since he needs extra new patient time, we will be back in the waiting room for our appointment. How irritating.

The nice moment came though when the Doctor's office called me back after having to cancel the appointment for today. The woman at the front desk had received the brunt of my frustration.  She wanted to tell me that the school district physical was good for two years. I told her I did know that but scouts needs one every year. I appreciated the fact she checked though, in hopes of saving me some time and wasted energy. I wish it had been that easy. It cheered me up that she had made that extra effort to at least check my son's chart. I appreciated the gesture. Still wont save me from the Doctor's bill.