October, 2012

October, 2012
October 2012

Friday, May 6, 2011

When you know you know.....you know......understand?

This has been one of those weeks when I can't seem to get through a day without doing or saying something idiotic.  A week when my mouth has often been ahead of my brain.  All week I had been wondering what was wrong....hormonal imbalance, wrong phase of the moon.  I needed an excuse for my stupidity.  


Thursday, I had almost made it through the entire day without making a fool of myself.  Almost.  In fact I got a lot accomplished early in the day because I knew my afternoon would be full taking the girls for camp and 6th grade physicals.  The visit started out as nothing unusual...sign in, make sure nothing has changed with insurance then have a seat in the waiting room.  We didn't even have to wait but a minute or two which was a relief.   Then it all went downhill.


I knew already that since Brooke was there for her 6th grade physical she would be needing shots.  Anna was going to have a 4-H camp physical and she would not need shots.  The first thing the nurse said to me was that since they didn't have Brooke's shot records there at the office, they wouldn't be able to fill out her immunization record today.  WHAT?  Maybe I heard her incorrectly. She said that the first time they had been to that office was in 2008.  I said that couldn't be accurate.  She said they had looked for the records and there weren't any before that time and there wasn't an immunization certificate for either girl. She even said to me that they don't keep hard copies of doctor visit records.  That they only keep important things like shot records.  I suddenly felt quite unnerved.  These are my children's medical histories that have traveled with them through the years.  I depend on knowing where those records are in case they are ever needed and suddenly I didn't know where they were. What did she mean "they don't keep them"? 


When you know you know something is true and someone is telling you it isn't, it is a frustrating feeling.  To make it worse they were truly acting like I was crazy.  I wasn't rude at all, but I was insistent that the records were there.  They did find records for Ben and Ashley going back to early 2006.  Yet, when I said that Brooke and Anna's records were there also because it wouldn't make sense that I would bring my oldest and youngest child, but not the 2 in the middle, they gave me a look like they truly pitied my stupidity. 

They said they would go downstairs and look one more time.  They didn't find the records, but they did bring up Ben's immunization record so they could show me that he had his first shots in Richmond (we lived in Richmond until October of 2005) and maybe that is where the missing records were.  At this point I just gave up and said maybe they were right.  I apologized that I couldn't remember things correctly and for asking them to look again for the records. Perfect.  Another day this week when I am feeling like a fool.  I spend a lot of time around someone with dementia...starting to know how she feels.  


I went home and tried to put it out of my head but I couldn't.  Then it dawned on me that the best place to figure this out was the billing department of the doctor's office.  Billing departments never lose any paperwork.  


So this morning I gave them a call and explained the situation as succinctly as possible.  Took less than a minute for her to tell me that the first time Brooke had been seen in their office was January 2006.  In fact all of my kids were seen there in 2006.  Thank you....I am not crazy after all.  She also said she would have them check again for their records and call me back if she found them. Would you believe when she called me back she said the records were right where they should have been for both girls.  They weren't even out of alphabetical order.  Oh, and in that folder of records.....IMMUNIZATION CERTIFICATES and the form I had filled out in 2006 requesting records from Richmond be sent to Danville.  I have decided there must be two basements and the nurse from Thursday night had gone to the wrong one. 


When you know you know something......you know it....period. Oh, and finding out today that I didn't make a fool out of myself after all helped me make it through the rest of my Friday craziness free. 



2 comments:

  1. isn't it great to know that you weren't crazy? i hope the billing lady said something to the nurse too! she should know where to look for future kids!

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  2. I made it very clear that I didn't want anyone to be in trouble and she said she could tell I wasn't upset (which means that my trying to improve how I come across has paid off!) but she seemed very interested in who had been working that night. And yes, I was glad to know I am not crazy....well this time anyway!

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