Looking diabetic
Dear Jennifer,
I just thought about it and I hope you know I sent the picture of my
foot as a joke. I wasn’t taking lightly
what the dr. had said to you, but it was a compliment. I do everything
to not look ill. My own dr. knows if I show up in his office with no
make-up, hair not done, fingernails raggedy—then I’ve been sick. I’m
a little fanatical about looking as healthy as I can so
he really did pay you a nice compliment. I think I would have been more
offended had he told me I looked like crap! 
As far as a moron goes, yes he was. Not looking at your chart first is a
sure sign of incompetency. I learned a long time ago how to remedy that.
I always take a printout of my medical history to date to every visit so
his butt has ’something’ paper clipped to the front that he has to read.
I don’t care how redundant it might be, it gets his attention. I also do
this with my med list. That catches their eye too. I tell the nurse to
please see to it that it is put on the front of the chart. I get very
irritated when doctors do not do their job properly and won’t hesitate
to tell them either. I will report them to my insurance company if I
feel the visit wasn’t long enough. If I receive an EOB that says he
billed for half an hour and he only spent 10 minutes with me, then I
will call my insurance company.
I used to do insurance billing. I know the scams they pull to get paid a
good sum. Actually, specialists are the worst. My regular PMD spends on
average 45 -60 mins. with me and he’s paid only $50.00 if he is lucky,
$20 of which is my co-pay.
An Ortho doc I saw last year spent 10 minutes with me and billed for 1
hour consultation. Every time I went back, if he saw me for more than 5,
I was lucky and he was billing for 45- 60. Man, was I mad. I called my
insurance and wrote a report and sent it in. I do not see him anymore.
He was a total louse. He told me that with 9 herniated discs, he could
only keep me pain free so he plied me with Vicodin!
I have horror stories I could tell you that would make your hair stand
on end of how I have been treated by certain drs.
I am so thankful that my balding, PMD who is paid so little, handles it
all. I refuse to see an Endo. Every time I have, all they want to do is
change your insulin to something else each time. I’ve had this happen
even if I was doing well with control.
Medical society can be a real trip but don’t lose total faith. There are
some out there that do know how to treat people properly.
Take care,
Carol