Thursday, I had my first ever dermatology appointment, at a not so local hospital. I'd asked J to come with me, months before. I finished work and was home for about 10 minutes when she arrived to pick me up for the journey. Found the hospital no problem but we couldn't find a parking space.
J drops me off at the main hospital door, I have about 15 minutes before my appointment but, so that I'm not panicking, I leave the car and let J go on to find a space. I look at the board, gosh it's complicated. I head off to the left and I'm frantically reading signs as I stride. I am supposed to be heading for the blue zone, outpatients one, I can see a sign for everything, but that.
A doctor is about 6 paces in front of me. He flashes a pass and walks thought double doors, I pass through behind, tailgating him, immediately see a sign for "mortuary," and quickly jump back through the automatic doors before they close. Pretty sure this is not where I'm supposed to be.
Handsome doctor approaches. I say "doctor", he has a stethoscope around his neck and great hair... so I'm assuming. I ask for directions, basically, I need to head back the way I've come, I went wrong from the word "go."
I've had a problem with my skin for over 20 years. Since puberty actually, I've tried everything, every wash and mask you can buy from Boots. I've had from the GP; antibiotics, gels, creams, lotions, potions, the pill, I've tried facials, nothing worked. Six months ago, my GP offered me a referral to a dermatologist, couldn't help but wonder why I wasn't offered this 15-20 years ago?
It's 50 minutes after my appointment time when I'm finally called to a much smaller waiting area... to wait for another 5 minutes. I finally get to see the doctor. She is very nice, looks tired, is of Eastern European decent and while her English is good, I have to clarify everything as her accent is so strong. I have to ask her to repeat most things or I repeat back to her to check my understanding. My last chance is a very strong drug, it's a very mild, chemotherapy, has lots of side effects and I don't want to miss anything just by being too polite to double check my understanding. The main thing is, I absolutely cannot get pregnant... from what I can gather.
After an embarrassing conversation about birth control, I was fine, doctor was embarrassed, she went on to say, "can you imagine having this conversation with a 15 year old... her Dad present?" I did my best to alleviate the tension.
I was asked to provide a variety of bodily fluids, I would need to provide about 10 samples over the course. It's a six month treatment and it felt like I was being asked to jump through hoops. The hospital is not local and it just seemed like, it was just too much. I got a bit tearful and I pushed the paperwork on the desk, back towards the doctor, rejecting the treatment. I've been left to cope with the situation for over 20 years, maybe I should just get on with it.
"You've waited this long... give it a chance." The doctor was nice and I felt defeated and too tired to argue. I was fed up, but already there, I may as well give it a chance.
"It'll just be five minutes, then you can go." Well, five minutes turned into just over two hours. To begin with, it took staff 10 minutes to take a water sample off me, then it took two staff, three tests, just to check that I wasn't pregnant. And so it went on. I left home at 2.45pm and got back at 6.50pm.
It's six months out of my life and I suppose I may as well give it a go, a last chance. After that, the world had better get used to me as I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment