"The doctor will (NOT) see you now."

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. I haven't had a physical since...well, I honestly can't remember when I last had a physical. College maybe? Maybe not even then. I go the doctor when I'm sick. I completely understand the logic of preventive medicine, but who has time for it? I work in one state and live in another. I'm looking at a minimum three hours off work to go to the doctor. So I don't go much.

My "primary care physician," according to my insurance company, is a doctor I haven't seen for 10 years. (Really, I'm not exaggerating.) When dangerously high cholesterol test results (at my OB/GYN's orders - I do see him yearly), followed by an absurdly high blood-pressure reading, forced me to schedule this physical, I discovered my doctor was in the process of relocating to a new office. Funny...he'd done that 10 years ago. I never did visit that office. Now they would be forwarding my records to a new location...exactly as they'd received them from the original location.

I had stupidly left the address of the new office at work yesterday, so I went looking for it on-line this morning before my 9:00 appointment. Everywhere the doctor was listed, it was under the old address. I called information for the phone number. You guessed it - old phone number. I remembered when I had booked the appointment, the receptionist mentioned that the new office was "near the mall". I decided to drive to the mall, call the OLD office (which wouldn't open until 9AM) and get the phone number for the new office. Hopefully, I would only be a few minutes late to my appointment.

I called the old office, the one I'd never visited, around 8:45. I was hoping the receptionist might come in early. Fat chance. While sitting there, I realized that there was one of those office complexes across the street from the mall. There were about 10 buildings, each housing one or two businesses, primarily doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial counselors, etc. I drove around reading signs. The LAST building I got to had my doctor's name on it! How random is that?? I was actually EARLY for my appointment.

I filled out the normal paperwork. The nurse took my blood pressure (still high), blood sample, urine sample, weight (also too high), etc. At about 9:45, the nurse told me that the doctor wasn't coming. He'd been called to the hospital on an emergency. I would have to reschedule the appointement. They'd better not charge me another $15 co-pay!!

Three day weekend coming. Paul and I are going to the Catskills, a "free" trip we received as compensation for enduring one of those endless time share sales pitches. The fall colors should be nice there this weekend.