the quickest way to crazy

Want to know the fastest way to cause someone like me an anxiety attack?


How about I call my psychiatrist's office to change the time of my next appointment and they tell me that my doctor, who I've been seeing for 4 months, is no longer a part of their group. And no, they don't know where he went but his PA will be taking over his patients.


Are you kidding me? When was I going to be told? He's really gone? Does that mean my already scheduled appointment will be transferred to the PA's appointment books?


No, she only works on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and your appointment is on a Friday. 


So you can't move my appointment?


Well, no because you're appointment is on a Friday. And she only works Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.


So does that mean you can't move my appointment to one of those days?


Is that what you want to do? 


Really?!?! You have to ask me that? After I just asked if my appointment could be moved over? You know you're dealing with people who have mental problems, right? That's kind of your whole clientele. Don't start giving me the run-around right after you've told them you no longer have the doctor I've come to rely on.


But, Yes! Of course I want my appointment moved!


So I make a new appointment and am hanging up the phone when it hits me - I think I just scheduled to see the awful PA who let me wait a day and a half before seeing me in the hospital. But then I remember, wait, I have my doctor's email address. He gave it to me at our first meeting. I whip that bad boy out and click-clack out a distressed email asking what-the-fruit basket is going on. My answer?


An automated vacation reply.


Sob.


So I wait and try not to freak out. It'll be fine, right? I'm practically on a medication upkeep basis anyway. It won't really matter who I see, right? Right? Except this is the lady who kept me waiting a day and a half before she found the time to see me. A day and a half. While I was locked in a mental institution.


And then, miraculously, I get an actual email reply from my doctor. I eagerly open it and find that it only contains a website. Hoping it contains answers to all my worries and concerns, I click. It only has one page - a page under construction telling me that my doctor is moving his main practice to a new facility in Provo. That's wonderful! So much closer than my previous drive to Salt Lake.


But that's it. Just that he's moving. All the page links say "coming soon." So I email him back to ask if my existing appointment with him will carry over. His reply - keep checking the website.


Does no one remember that I'm a MENTAL PATIENT? You can't just leave us people hanging. The OCD will kick in and I'll be checking that web page every 5 minutes to see if it updated yet.


Great doctor/patient skills there, Doc. I'd complain more but his succinct personality is kind of why I liked him in the first place. So I'll keep checking, and keep emailing, and with that, the anxiety will slowly climb down from eleven.