Fool me once...

I fancy myself a patient person (when not in traffic). And when I go to a doctor’s office, I understand that occasionally things come up and can delay the doc. After all, I don’t want said doc racing through my appointment, so I’m willing to cut him/her some slack and patiently wait a few minutes. What I’m unwilling to do is wait two stinking hours.

Let me rephrase: I was willing to wait two hours for Amy’s orthopedist’s appointment. It was our first visit and Amy needed a cast so I didn’t have much of a choice. The writing was on the wall, however, because there’s a permanent sign posted by the check-in window that states, “Our doctor is a specialist – delays of up to two hours can occur.” Even though I’d seen that sign I figured it had to be an occasional thing, so, being the patient person I am, I waited, Amy got her cast and four hours after our scheduled appointment time, we left.

But when we went back for our second appointment this Wednesday we were told that again the doctor was running two hours behind. Our appointment was set for 3:15; at 5:15 I calmly and quietly inquired as to the estimated length of our wait time. I was told there were four patients ahead of Amy and I could expect her to be seen in an hour or so. I, again calmly, explained that I had a prior commitment and if they could not guarantee we’d be done by 6:15 (three stinking hours after our appointment!) then we’d have to reschedule. The receptionist looked at me and said, with all seriousness, “Can’t you cancel your plans?”

Um, no, crazy lady. I was scheduled to help clean up our church’s kitchen after others had been there to feed 40 people. And my commitment was a full four dadgum hours after Amy’s scheduled appointment! So no, I could not just cancel my plans.

What I wanted to say was, “I know you don’t know who I am, but I have a blog that is read by up to 20 whole people a day, and some of them actually live in Lansing. If you don’t get me in now I intend to publish your doctor’s name and let everyone know he is never on time.”

Instead, I calmly said, “No, I cannot cancel my plans. Please reschedule our appointment.” To which she said, “Friday, 5:00. But I cannot guarantee he’ll be on time.”

No kidding.

So today, at 5:00 we’ll be at the orthopedist’s office and let me tell you, I fully intend to wait and wait and wait. Thankfully I have a good book.