Doctor dilemmas
If you need to see a GP, you can do so fairly quickly with zero paperwork or cost. If you need to see a specialist, good luck to you. My GP referred me to a gyn for a minor procedure. If a gyn in the Belfast Health Care Trust is not available in a year—-yep, a year—-you are referred to another trust. This August will be two years since the original referral. I got a letter from the health care trust near Derry (the northern part of Northern Ireland) a month ago. I didn’t respond and set up an appointment fast enough (see my post on time management) and now I’m out of the queue. The health care system is two tier. If it’s an emergency, you will receive good care quickly at no cost. If it’s discretionary, you can wait more than a year or two. The message I’ve internalised is: they aren’t worried about it, so I’m not either. The issue is hidden and asymptomatic, so I’m not driving to Derry for maintenance work.
My GP also referred me to a dermatologist last summer and I recently got a referral to the health care trust in Hillsborough, a half-hour drive. I followed up on this one because the issue is something that I can see and feel. The skin around my mouth occasionally gets chapped and itchy. I think I have some kind of allergy.
And so today I drove to Hillsborough. Or I tried to. I spent the morning trying to write an intelligent follow-up e-mail to PRI—-compensating for my shortcomings during yesterday's interview—-so I got a late start and didn’t have much time to study the map. Big mistake. It should have been the M1 to the A1 to Carnreagh Road to Ballynahinch Road. Easy peasy. Obstacle 1 is that Google Maps breaks things down into so many discrete steps that I didn’t have time to write them all down. Obstacle 2, I was low on gas. Obstacle 3: There is more than one A1. Obstacle 4: Numerous roundabouts. Lost and frantic, I called David. I hate being late, I hate being lost, and being low on gas wasn’t helping. He consulted Google Maps and sent me about 8 miles out of my way—it was a lovely drive but was taking me away from my target. I called the dermatologist office twice, beyond frustrated that I couldn’t get my bearings. Twice the signal was interrupted and I lost the call. Not helping.
I was a half hour late for the dermatologist. She didn’t seem upset about it but I was beside myself. I’d been driving with white knuckles for the past 45 minutes. I really don’t know how to calm myself down in such situations. I think my driving skills take a nosedive (pulling over in places that aren’t safe, turning around in places that aren’t safe, deciding a bit late which fork to take, and so on).
After the appointment, I decided to call into Lisburn on the way home to go to the lovely gift shop at the Linen Museum and buy myself some Ulster Weaver tea towels I’d admired on my last visit. I got petrol then had lunch—I hadn’t eaten before my 1:30/2pm dermatology appointment. It’s now 3 and I’m dizzy with hunger. After lunch I go to the museum which is, of course, closed for maintenance. I get hopelessly lost trying to get out of Lisburn—blasted one-way systems and poor signage mean driving in circles. Which M1? Which A1? I get back to Belfast during traffic madness—Belfast has horrible traffic circulation. I get home at 5 pm (I’d left at 1) and went to bed to calm my nerves.
I wish I were more resilient. I wish I were more zen about being lost and/or late. I wish I had a sense of direction. I realised today I actually do have a sense of direction, it’s just the mirror of the compass points used by the less navigationally challenged. At every fork, I will reliably go in the wrong direction repeatedly until there’s no way back.
When I got home, I had an automated e-mail reply from the HR woman at PRI letting me know she was out of the office until Monday. I spent two very stressful hours this morning trying to write the perfect e-mail to PRI because I wanted to follow-up quickly on the interview. All for naught, as it turned out.
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