In the Patient's Shoes

We have spent so much time training to be, and now being doctors. It has sometimes been hard to remember what it is like to be on the "patient" side of things.

I was reminded today when I went to the dentist.

I actually remember the first time I tried to set a dentist appointment while in residency, which was at the end of intern year. If you can imagine that, some months, we work on average, 13-14 hour days from 6a - 7 or 7:30 p.m. and don't know about days off until "the month OF," scheduling appointments is rather tricky. I had this very grand plan to go to the dentist on a Thursday morning after working a week of OB nights, because on nights you actually have the daytime hours to run errands. I planned the appointment months in advance, because it is really hard to get an appointment on short notice. I remember getting a reminder phone call the day before (waking me up from sleep), reminding me of my appointment time.

But, as you can imagine, dental appointments aren't very high on my priority list (I actually despise going to the dentist... sorry, Rach!). Especially after a hard, sleepless night on OB at the end of a week or two of nights. It wasn't until later in the afternoon, when I got a phone call inquiring about why I wasn't able to keep my appointment, that, in total shock, I realized that I had totally DNKA'd! (DNKA, in our world, stands for "did not keep appointment."). I had biked home from work in a sleep-deprived state and totally missed the appointment time that morning. I was so, so frustrated at myself, as I generally consider myself to be a pretty responsible individual. I am a doctor, for heaven's sake. In our clinic, I find myself often frustrated at patients who schedule appointments in my schedule and then DNKA (no-show), preventing other deserving patients for using that spot for medical care. But, obviously, I can be a lousy, flaky patient and was guilty of DNKA-ing myself. Oops. And then I had to reschedule the appointment-- at the next available which worked for me, which was about 3 months later. Luckily, I remembered that time.

I have managed to get in to see my PCP (primary care provider), an attending in our own FP clinic, twice in residency for routine health maintenance and much needed allergy medications, but this has also been with much reluctance and lots of schedule planning. Apparently we are supposed to get time off to be able to attend medical appointments in residency, but never have I found this in the slightest bit convenient. And I refuse to every "jeopardize" someone to cover my other clinical responsibilities for something like this.

In any case, back to my being a patient. After reminding myself daily for the past 2 weeks that I had a dental appointment today that I couldn't miss, I found myself madly rushing over there after noon conference, hoping I would not be "that patient" who was then late. Luckily, I wasn't. I was rushed right in and they commented, "Wow. It's been a while since you were here." (You bet it has -- probably a year and a half!). Then they X-rayed, poked, prodded, polished, did the usual annoying dentist stuff, and then gave me a clean dental bill of health which I always find slightly miraculous with the large amounts of coffee I drink and the not-so-large amounts of flossing I do.

And then came the "time to discuss follow-up."

The dentist said, "So, can we expect to see you next time in sooner than a year and a half?"

Me: "Um.. well, I will try. I'm not sure what my schedule is like/where I'll be next year."

Dentist: "What? Are you moving?"

Me: "Well... not exactly. I just have a hard schedule to work around. It's hard because I often don't know very far in advance when I have time off to be able to come and then, when I call, you are often booked out for many weeks."

Dentist: "Well, we'll send you a reminder postcard a month before, and would really like you to come back in about 6 months or so."

Me: "Okay...I will do my best to come back in January."

It was good to re-live this today. I am certainly guilty of being a bit self-centered and expecting patients to show up at times that conveniently meet our schedules and our scheduled clinic days, when they may certainly may have other, more important commitments. Surely their perception of the importance of blood pressure monitoring and control (compared to their kids' or family members' life events) may not be on the same importance scale as ours, when we are the ones in the office and they are the ones rearranging their lives to come in to the doctor to see us.

I will try to remember this, and how it feels to be a patient being "told" to do something regularly. Maybe this year I will floss regularly. Maybe I will be a better, more compliant dental patient and not let another year and a half elapse before I see a dentist again.

Maybe.