So you all know that I occasionally get frustrated with my job. Especially the part that involves dealing with people. And how I get annoyed with other doctors (translation: surgeons) expecting the spineless internists to deal with everything while they sign off and please call back with questions (translation: don't call back with questions).
Wednesday was your average day in clinic. One "I hurt all over" and one "I have lupus" (no you don't). But sandwiched in the middle was a patient I had seen in the hospital. A patient who I didn't think had a rheumatologic disease but another doctor thought she did, and what do I know? I am, after all, just the rheumatologist. Somehow she has still ended up in my clinic, 40 minutes late for a 20 minute appointment. I am slightly irritated as I grab the chart and knock on the door but try to calm my volatile temperament as I walk in the exam room.
I then spend the next 30 minutes talking to her (translation: I am now running 70 minutes behind) about anything and everything related to her medical care except the rheumatologic disease she still doesn't have. Why? Because she has no idea why she's taking any of her pills or how to take them or when to take them or which doctor she actually needs to be seeing or even what disease she has. Call me maple syrup because deep down inside where I don't want you to see, I am a sap for my patients. And fortunately for her, I am at this point in my career a better internist than rheumatologist anyway. And since I know nobody else is gonna tell her those things or educate her about the disease she actually has, I do.
I can't help myself.
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