Oh, hey, my depression lifted for like seven hours today! It was great to know what I could be feeling like! Now I want to either drink myself into a coma or go punch things that break. It's a good thing I don't have any friends around here. I might end up being a little annoying tonight. Of course, I've never really had any friends I could call at midnight in a weepy drunken angry self-pitying haze, so I don't actually know what I would do if I had some friends to annoy right now. I mean, it's not like I don't have any friends, but they have jobs and/or children and they live in different time zones, and it would be bad of me to call them at this hour just because I hate everything and I want someone to lie and tell me it'll be all right. So I'll post here instead and probably delete it as soon as I sober up.

I never feel rushed through my doctor visits. She asks me questions, looks over my records and asks good questions. I feel comfortable with the amount of time I spend in office visits with me as well as my kids.

What time zone are you in, Zen?

I have had a mixture, I have literally had a doctor walk out the door while still talking. She walked in, I told her I thought I had strep, she looked at my throat and said "Okay, I'll write a scrip for antibiotics and leave it at the front desk." and began to leave. I said "wait, don't you want to take a culture?" She was holding the door open with one foot in the hallway when she said "well, I will if you insist, but you do seem to have strep. have a good day!" and left. I wanted to get the culture to be difficult, but a) I was damn near positive that I had strep and b) it would probably take forever to get someone to come back.

Connie, Eastern. I have two friends in my time zone, one of whom is not real good with emotions and one who has a job and a kid. And my sister, also not real good with emotions.

That's hard, Zen. I will tell you that things will be all right, but it's not a lie. I hope that's okay.

Thanks, Scrappy. I appreciate it.

She was holding the door open with one foot in the hallway when she said "well, I will if you insist, but you do seem to have strep. have a good day!" and left.

And because I'm contrary even to myself, that would actually be all right with me. If my doctor and I agree on what my problem is and all I need is a script, I'm totally cool with her taking care of business and getting me out of there, and moving on to someone who maybe does need more than seven minutes.

My last Dr appt (new PCP, my last one up and moved after the one less than a year before left to go into specialty) started out listening really well then just literally walked out the door. I waited 15 minutes for her to come back before getting dressed and finding a nurse and asking if the Dr was coming back. Clearly she wasn't. I kinda insisted...since we hadn't gotten to follow-up or prescription refills yet. Waited a bit longer and finished the appt (in my mind, in her mind it had been done.) 7 min sounds about right to me for a general PCP/garden variety sick visit unless you have something super interesting or control your time well (i.e. "demanding") or have a great PCP who isn't horrendously overscheduled. Specialty care providers are a whole different kettle of fish. It just bugs me that my frigging insurance (thanks, capitalized health care system!) turns the PCP into a gateway for pretty much *every* other specialty dr. I can only see PCP and GYN without a referral. Everything else I have to bug a PCP to make a referral first, which I'm sure is annoying as all get out for the Drs.

Skipping oh-way-way-too-much because, according to the Buffista Calendar, today is Polter-Cow's birthday.

Happy birthday, PC! With lots of wishes for a great day and a wonderful year!