today is the day we've been waiting for--the day that i get to go see my aetna hmo assigned doctor: dr. wayne robinson of the hawaiian gardens medical and mental health services (la vida IPA). twiddle thumbs and i arrive at 8am and before we even go inside i have a funny feeling. as i was getting out of the car, someone was passing by on a bicycle and kept staring at us. what's the matter? you never seen a sick person before? we go inside and quickly deduce that it is a drug rehabilitation clinic! i'm sure the staff were quite bewildered when i went in there acting like it's a regular general practice clinic and was asking to see the doctor. they gave me forms to fill out and i waited for the doctor. meanwhile, street junkies are coming in and out to get their dose of methadone and other medicines to take home.

i think i finally got to see a nurse after being there for 1 hour. she did the usual pre-screen for a doctor. the whole height/weight/blood pressure sort of basic stuff. i guess no one told her that i can't talk because of my sore throat and i had to motion this information. she seemed to have a troubled face when she asked, "but you can talk normally, right?". i guess mute people freak her out. after all that was over, i waited some more for the doctor. we heard the staff bitch to each other about how long the doctor was taking and also gossiping about another staff person who is now dating a patient. ah, rehab, gotta love it. as we sat there, both of us thought, "this is so going in my blog!"

when the doctor finally was ready to see me, i went into his office as he had expected to first spend some time talking about my symptoms. i had already written out a note detailing how my symptoms have progressed over the week, including a briefing of my adventure on saturday trying to seek treatment. in the note i also asked for a recommendation for a general practice doctor (not a rehab clinic). all he said was that it was a good note. he never even addressed my question.

then we went to one of the examining rooms. (the doctor was a fat bastard who had to use his desk to help propel him upright.) in the examining room, the light he was going to use to help see my throat was out. he tried to use one of those devices to look in a ear as the light source but it wasn't enough. he put down the wooden tongue depressor on the other examining bed in the room and left in search of another bulb. i could only stare at the tongue depressor in concern of how it was acquiring germs. then i looked around the room and noticed how sparse it was of medical supplies. when he returned, we went into another examining room and used the ear device again, but this one's light was much brighter. he also looked in my ear that i said hurt. he said both my ear and throat are red. he started to say that i had tonsillitis until he asked if i felt pain or swelling in my tonsils/throat and i replied no. that was the end of the exam. he didn't even check my breathing. he seemed to be content with my saying i wasn't having respiratory problems.

back in his office, he said that i probably have strep throat. excuse me, everything i've read and people i've talked to have said that a swab test is done to determine strep throat. he started writing out a prescription for me and i was getting very nervous that this was the end of the visit and i was gonna be stuck with this bastard as my doctor. (i don't know any doctors in LA and the aetna web site sucks. it does not give enough information to chose a doctor. it doesn't say that this bastard works at a rehab clinic!) i wrote a note asking for a referral to an ear/nose/throat specialist just in case the medicine does not work. he got upset. "why do i need to give a referral if i am treating it as strep throat?" and with that he became declarative: "i am diagnosing it as strep throat!" i knew that all i was getting out of this visit was the medicine. i took the prescription and left. as i reached the lobby, i mouthed "asshole" to twiddle thumbs which summed up how i felt.

we left and immediately had my prescription filled. i was so pissed off that i didn't mind if i coughed on everyone in the place and made them sick. then we went home and i fucking googled every doctor that aetna listed as being close to me (the default search). i searched the IPA name, the clinic name, the address, the doctor's name, etc. well, one of the first searches turned out to be another rehab clinic! i freaked out. i decided to narrow down my search. i kept googling the doctors. i wasn't happy at all with the results. i thought that no one would be suitable. that even if i had an insurance plan where i could go to anyone, it would be useless since i don't know doctors in LA. while i was on the site, i also filled out the little 'contact us' form to bitch about my experience on saturday and today. how dare they default assign people to a rehab doctor, especially that asshole.

i asked twiddle thumbs to call aetna member services again and try to speak to someone to help find me someone else. she was able to speak to a human and they went over my basic criteria and i was signed up with a different doctor. it was very lucky that we called today because we learned that you can only change your doctor on the 1st and 15th of the month. however, there are no limits. i will keep changing doctors until i find someone decent! for every asshole doctor that i encounter, i will blast their name/clinic on this blog and to aetna....and this is why i never go to the doctor when i have a cold/flu.