rant.

why do i only blog when i'm unhappy? i suppose, misery loves company, eh? ah well, on to the rant...

can i get some service? any service. a lil service, not a lot. not the going out of your way winning-type service, just some ordinary bottom-line, doing-what-you-said-you-were-going-to-do service?

i took my son to his neurologist today. this is my second attempt at this visit, the first ending in frustration because his referral expired, the nurse never notified me when it expired, so when i showed up for an appointment he could not be seen.

so, my second attempt: upon arrival, i'm checked in by unfriendly medical assistant#1. she processes my insurance, and passes me on to unfriendly medical assistant#2, who forces my scared-of-anything-in-scrubs son to get his weight and blood pressure. now he's no longer feeling the whole visit, and her bedside manner is worsening the situation. so, then we meet unfriendly nurse practitioner, who apparently missed her morning coffee. she barrages me with questions while my son fidgets, bored. then, suddenly she becomes animated, attempting to engage my son - to try & gauge his behavior. my son sees through the ruse. at this point, my son is ready to leave & uncooperative. then, unfriendly medical assistant #1 returns to inform me that my referral from my doctor was written incorrectly, so i'll need to pay $250 out of pocket for this visit. WTF!

so i now am on phone with unfriendly PCP (primary care physician's) office manager, who informs me that in the 7 days since i requested the referral she 'hasn't had time' to put said referral in 'the system' to correctly fill it out. she faxed the incorrectly completed referral regardless, and if we're willing to wait, oh about 10 minutes, she'll fix it. fine. meanwhile unfriendly nurse practitioner continues to aggravate my now bored-hungry-wet child.

10 minutes later: still no corrected referral. unfriendly medical assistant#1 is willing to wait, but unfriendly nurse practitioner says i need to give up my room. my bored-hungry-wet son & i wait in the after-appointment reception area.

10 more minutes later: still no corrected referral. i move from the after-appointment reception area to the pre-appointment reception area - which has a tv for the bored-hungry-wet child to watch Sesame Street. unfriendly medical assistant#3 tells me not to leave, because i still need to wait for the referral form to be faxed. did i look like i was making a run to the border or something?

10 more minutes later: still no corrected referral. i'm on the phone with unfriendly PCP office manager, who again says 10 more minutes. unfriendly medical assistants #1, #2 and #3 are shooting me dirty looks, and suggesting i just 'leave them a check' that they'll 'tear up' as soon as unfriendly PCP office manager faxes the corrected referral form. yeah, right - like i believe that. my bored-hungry-wet-aggravated child & i will wait. meanwhile, my other patient-helpful child offers to take my son to wait in the car. bless her - she is a savior.

an additional 10 minutes later: unfriendly PCP office manager calls unfriendly medical assistant#3 and says she's faxing the form. unfriendly medical assistant#3 lets me know. thanx - whatever.

an additional 10 minutes later: unfriendly medical assistant#3 says she has what she needs, and i'm free to go. great - thanx for all your help.

why i am still pissed 8 hours later: because i was at a facility for Child Neurology - most of the kids here are probably outside norms. because these unfriendly caregivers for these special needs children weren't giving any care. because these unfriendly caregivers were also aggravated because my bored-hungry-wet child was acting up - hence the dirty looks. because this is typical. because i'll probably encounter the same thing again. because all these unfriendly caregivers - down to the nurse, medical assistants, office managers, etc were all african-american and so am i. because i expect my people to treat me better than that. and because i know if i went back tomorrow, or the next day or the next - they won't.

ok, i have to go - i have nasty letters to write to my PCP, insurance company, hospital administrators, et al. i know that once the shyt hits the fan, i may not be able to even walk into these facilities without drama. i hope, however, that my efforts may make this easier for the next person.

it's over!!!!

yeah..yeah..yeah!!!! semester's over, finally and i am ecstatic

I got an A in Risk Management (knew this), Global Business (knew that), and Introduction to Corporate Finance - which was a complete, utter and pleasant surprise. Heck, I may take another Finance class after that shocker.

As for summer school, not likely. I'm not up to it - between school, work, my fibroids, everyday stress, etc - I need a break. I need 10 classes to graduate, and I just don't have it in me to take any classes. I need a vacation.

Meanwhile, I'm happy - which means I probably won't be blogging for a sec. So, I leave with this...

I'm going to finally create my webpage - to include this blog, amongst other pages. Stay tuned

~ edited to add:: i got 3 A's and 1 B...I ROCK!!! ~