I realize that medical technology has progressed to do amazing things these days, but I always thought that time traveling and mind reading were beyond human capability at the moment. Apparently I was wrong.

It all started on Tuesday when I decided to finally do something about my high blood pressure. I have a 150/90 type blood pressure, which is not horrendous, but would be long term dangerous and needs to be treated. This is due to heredity, not lifestyle. My parents and my younger brother had similar high blood pressure, and are all on meds for it. On the good side, my cholestrol, also mostly determined by heredity, is surprisingly low (142 when last checked).

I have Obamacare. It sucks. I wish it didn't. I would rather sheepishly admit that Obama did a great thing and have good care than have bad care and have ammo to bash Democrats. But it's definitely the latter.

"If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor", said Obama.



In reality, very few doctors take these Obamacare plans, even the top-flight Platinum ones. Sadly, most of the doctors taking ACA plans are crappy and poorly rated. The few that aren't tend to be full and not taking new patients.

On Tuesday, I went through the arduous task of searching out doctors on my plan, looking up ratings and info about them, and calling ones that seemed decent to see if they could fit me in sometime soon.

I will say that I didn't heavily research each doctor, since I was simply asking for blood pressure medication, and basically any scrub doctor can prescribe it. This is especially true because I knew exactly which medication and dosage I wanted (the one my brother takes, which works well for him).

There were 2 doctors in this office. I didn't care which one was assigned to me, as they were both rated well.

They had an appointment for me same day, which I think was already a bad sign.

I decided I didn't feel like going in that day, and instead scheduled one for 11:15am on Wednesday (yesterday).

They told me to come in 30 minutes early (10:45) to "fill out paperwork" as a new patient. However, I noticed that when I would do this in the past, I would breeze through the paperwork in 10 minutes or less, and would be sitting around like a schlub for 20+ minutes, so I decided to show up at 11:00, figuring that was plenty of time.

I walked in at 11:00, and one of the receptionists told me, "Umm... we're going to have to change your doctor. The doctor we scheduled with is moving to one of our other offices."



How could this have happened? They just made my appointment THE DAY BEFORE! If the doctor was in the process of moving, why didn't they know that at appointment time?

I figured it was just a stupid mistake, and didn't care which doctor I saw. Then I realized that this sounded like an excuse to reschedule me.

"Umm... you' re not telling me to come back another time, are you?"

"Well, actually yes," said the receptionist. "You were supposed to come in at 10:45 for paperwork. It's 11:00. It's too late. How about you come back to see the other doctor at 12:30?"

No fucking way.

"I'm not understanding," I said matter-of-factly. "You just told me that the doctor I was scheduled with isn't here. What does this have to do with whether or not I showed up at 10:45? Either way, that doctor wouldn't be here, right?"

"Well, umm... aahh... paperwork... it takes time... ummm..."

"Look, " I said. "I'm fast with paperwork. Let me give it a shot."

The receptionist, a bitchy-looking gay guy, was clearly annoyed with me. He was hoping to just get me to go away with the "you showed up at 11" story, and make it look like my fault. He didn't like that I took apart his lame excuse and pointed out that it was their fault for scheduling me with a scheduled-absent doctor, rather than me showing up "late" for paperwork.

"Fine," he grumbled. "Go ahead."

I did the paperwork quickly, and was done well before 11:15.

I had my visit with the doctor, a small Indian woman, who was nice and seemed competent. She immediately agreed to prescribe the blood pressure meds I wanted, and did a brief examination which I was sure was associated with the blood pressure complaint. She listened to my heart and lungs, and the nurse had already taken my blood pressure earlier.

She then asked me a few questions.

"I see you're 45. Do you have a family history of colon cancer?"

I told her that, yes, I did, and that I was considering getting a colonoscopy this year.

"Do you have any issues with your stomach?", she asked me.

I told her that sometimes I did, and described them. She asked me where the pain was, I told her, and then we ended that topic and she told me I probably should get a colonoscopy this year.

She then asked me a few other general health questions.

She did not physically examine me besides listening to my heart and lungs.

However, I was actually happy with the visit, as I was only there for blood pressure meds, and she was nice enough to bring up other matters like whether or not I want a colonoscopy soon. She seemed thorough and the experience didn't feel rushed, as it does with many other doctors.

I was happy enough that I decided I would like a physical at this office, as I hadn't had one in awhile.

Obamacare entitles you to one completely free (covered by insurance 100%) physical per calendar year.

"I would like to schedule a physical soon," I told her.

She replied, "Okay, I'll set you up with lab tests, go to the front and they will schedule you."

She told me to fast for 8 hours before the blood test.

I went to the front and scheduled one for today at 9:00am.

I arrived on time, but then things really started to unravel, and I realized that this entire office was a big scam.

To be continued next post...