The Doctors

So I got to go to the lake this weekend for a bass fishing tournament. Being any where near water is my absolute favorite, but when you compile that with trees, wildlife, and great people; well that is the icing on the cake. It was my current boyfriends family event and just like the previous year, it was wonderful. My son took first place in the youth tournament; I was so proud. We have been working on getting him over some fears of things and this was a big thing for him because we told him if he wanted to be in the tournament he would have to bait his own hook and get used to touching fish, which he did after some patience. My other half won Biggest Bass, and the only fish I caught was before the tournament and didn't count. :( LOL! It was the biggest fish I have ever caught though. It was some where in the range of 10-15 inches. (We didn't measure it.) It was nice to be able to get out of the house for the weekend, since the only times I really get out are when I have doctors appointments. I don't really feel I can do the things I want anymore because the pain can hit bad at any time, and I would have to go home anyway. Why should I ruin everyone's fun because of the pain I will have to live with for the rest of my life? Having the right doctors on your side is very important in these situations. I tell people all the time, “Interview your doctor”. They live off of their patients, and we are those people. There so many doctors in the world now, and we have so many to choose from, even on an HMO. You just have to be willing to do the leg work, and most aren't. I started with a Medicaid doctor.

 I thought that since my son and I were both on Medicaid through the State of Michigan I would have to go to a Medicaid doctor. It was three days after we got home that got in to see him. I seen this doctor twice and both times I was not happy with his bedside manor. He didn't seem to care; I was just another low class, Medicaid patient getting free medical from the state. He didn't stop and think that I was a single mother, working full time, getting NO child support from the father, and just getting by. And now I had a broken ankle and was going to be out of work for at least three months.

  He did not go through what I would have thought were normal procedures for this kind of thing, like an MRI, or a complete work-up since I had just been in an accident that was bad enough to fracture my ankle and I might have other things wrong with me, like a concussion, or what about simply following up with the hospital I was at in Ohio? None of this was done, so I starting looking for a lawyer after the first visit.

  I have to admit, for anyone who knows me and may be reading this, I am not the best patient. I have expectations, and if you do not meet them, you are no longer a part of my life. If I feel you are not giving me what I need as my doctor, I tend to get a little, oh,.....lets say, anxious. When I get like that, I tend to feel sorry for those who have to see my facial expressions. They look nasty from what I am told. After I called Sam Bernstein, yes, literally, I found out that I didn't have to stick with a medicaid doctor and I could choose whomever I wanted. So I called the doctors office I trusted most, and even though I had not been to his office in years, they remembered me and made sure Doctor Wright got my message.

 I simply asked him for a great ankle specialist because I was in an accident and fractured my ankle. They called me back and told me he recommended Doctor Schram. He has been my doctor ever since. This man has a wonderful bedside manor, looks at you as the human you are, is understanding, and thorough. He asked to be told my whole story up until him, and then started to do all the things I thought a doctor should do. He explained that he did not want to do an MRI yet either because it was too early to tell anything and the swelling was still too much at that time. (He explained why; he didn't just say no.) He put on my second real cast, took a bunch of x-rays, and told me to be patient because this was going to take a while. This was how I was going to spend the rest of my summer. Having patience and waiting. I am usually good at these things, but this was a completely different story. I was going to be in the new cast for at least another six more weeks, and then, depending on the fracture, I was to move to a walking cast. Dr. Schram answered all my questions and understood my fears and tried not to make them worse. He knew that stress of anything could be a bad thing, and did not want to cause me any unnecessary worries. So he answered my questions, and kept it at that, and tried to keep me from expanding the thoughts that would creep into my head from my knowledge of the human body.