There’s a fine, fine line

I have a few different medical things I need to get looked at.  And I’m dreading the process of doing just that.  Not even dreading the appointments, etc. themselves (well, except for the dentist – that’s an entire post in itself).  Being medically complicated is, well, complicated.  Nothing seems as cut and dry as it should be.  I like my specialists, they at least seem to have some idea of what’s going on and what their part is.  This is good, but I miss the days of pediatrics all being in one building and who all seemed to work well together.  My pediatrician was also my geneticist (and currently volunteers at the hospital! I ran into him last year when I was going in for an ear infection…), and knew all my other specialists well.

Now it kind of seems like the specialists all kind of know each other, but the internists don’t.  Which I guess is fine since my specialists are more important to me ultimately, but it can be annoying.  Especially annoying since my HMO doesn’t give me the option of making specialist appointments online (seriously, who’s going to make too many doctor’s appointments?!).  Not that I necessarily mind calling but it’s just funny that we’re not trusted to actually make our own appointments.  Had a hilarious incident a few year where some confused employee tried to tell me that my doctor didn’t exist (turns out I needed to call the Eye Department directly for that one, who knew?!)

So I kind of feel, as a reasonably well-informed medical consumer who has unique health care needs, that I walk a fine, fine line between informed and being a pain in the ass.  I was raised as an active participant in my own medical decisions and try to maintain at least a basic level of understanding of what’s going on and what I should be doing.  But I also don’t want to be that patient who all the doctors are talking about around the water cooler…

(And, in case you were wondering, the fine, fine line reference is from Avenue Q)