PSA: Call Your Doctor

[lillibet]

If you haven't seen your doctor in the past year, call them and set up an appointment for a physical. Yes, now.

I have heard from three people on my f-list in the past day or two who've discovered, when they called because they were sick and really needed to see someone now, that their doctors were no longer there. Another friend had major delays in figuring out that his debilitating symptoms were encephalitis because he hadn't visited his doctor in three years and their office policy made him a new patient and his doctor wasn't accepting new patients. And you all know about my good friend who hadn't seen a doctor in long enough that his untreated hypertension caused a major stroke before forty. Finding a new PCP takes time--especially with the recent changes in Massachusetts healthcare, it can take months to get a new-patient appointment.

Yes, we're all busy. Yes, we don't particularly like going to the doctor. But we are, each of us, getting older every day. Even if you're perfectly healthy now, having an annual baseline is very useful. And having a doctor to go to when you're sick can be very, very important. Make an appointment, keep the appointment, and when you're there, make another one for next year.

Comments

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Does J go to the doctor every year? I've given up on getting dh to see a doctor on a regular basis.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you have people in your life who depend on you -- spouse, children, etc. -- you owe it to them, as well as to yourself, to look after your health as best you can. I consider it my wifely prerogative to nag Trowa to go to the doctor, and I do so from time to time. :-}

[wellstar.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the fact that there's often a huge lag time between making the appointment and the appointment itself. I called last week and have an appointment in May. It was shocking to me.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

As one of the aforementioned people who was just surprised to discover she has no PCP, I can't agree more. Although, in my case, I'm up to date on physicals and had been in about 4 months ago for all those ankle issues, so it didn't actually help in my case, but it is true that if you haven't been in for a year, it's totally worth making an appointment.

Interestingly, my PPO insurance doesn't care if I have a Primary Care Physician or not--in fact they have no way to keep a physician on record for PPO customers, but still my only options right now are emergency rooms or walk-in clinics until I'm on the roll of a doctor as his or her patient. (Which means, yes, I've called one and made a "first time" appointment for soonest available, which is about three weeks from now).

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Everyone can use this reminder.