Going to see your doctor if you have one is nothing like it used to be.              You have to call, and get a busy signal time after time.         I find to put your phone on the redial routine.               I find to push redial, after dialing the number, then when you get the busy signal hang up right away do the redial again.                     Stick with this routine, and you will be talking with the nurse soon after.                      

               Now if you are one of the few in this world that can gain contact with the nurse of your doctor right away.      “ I take my hat off to you”,   for you are very fortunate to have such a good doctor.          

                     Now, once you have made contact, you ask to see the doctor, and the question first asked, at least in my case is what is wrong with you.             I guess my illness will give me first choice on what date and time I get.               Grant you, I do understand the question and the reason for it being asked.                When I am sick I have no reasoning,  I  just need to get looked at, and taken care of.            The sweet kind voice of the nurse comes back with the bad news,  it will be one week before you can be seen by the doctor.               The chances my illness will be there in a week is debateable.             I hum and haw, the nurse says she has no sooner times open ,and if I wish I can go to the clinic or the emergency.               My heart begins to pump harded, as the idea of being trapped in the hospital goes through my mind.                  I take the appointment, and thank the nurse for her help.                           

                       The time for my doctor’s visit has approached, and I am still  not feeling well.                 I arrive at the office, I  check in, and wait.                     After a twenty minute wait I am in.     ”Yes!”                  Now this is the tricky part, you give your symptoms and the doctor listens to your chest, and checks the blood pressure, and the throat.       

                   She is rushed and you get the feeling you are taking up her pressious    time.                                It seems that now the more patients you see in  a day the more money you make.              There it is again the all mighty dollar, and how it runs our lives.             I don”t know if it just me  but, I feel like I am in the heird  of running cattle.                   I am being rounded up and run up the ramp  for your  fast assesment.                      

                       I have found we are getting ten to fifteen minutes tops, for a regular appointment,     and for your specially booked physical appointment you are given twenty to thirty minutes for your quick run over.             

              What happened to the patient, and the time to listen?     

                 What the heck can we do?        

                       Get another doctor?        Well, that is easier said than done.                 

                    Maybe we should all go back in time to the point when doctors were abundant, and they needed to be kind with their patients in order to keep them.                               

                                 “Oh”  if only.        

                 “Pinch me I must be dreaming.”