Making a Doctor Appointment - Escapades in Adulting

 

Trying to make a doctor appointment can often be a long, drawn-out process.  As a child, I never had to do that because Mom always scheduled our appointments. But now that it is one my own personal responsibilities, it seems to be either incredibly easy or incredibly difficult.  Actually, the problem seems to be when I'm a new patient and not when I'm established already.  Whenever I need to see my PCP, I just hope onto a website and make the appointment.  Easy peasy!  It is when I am a referred patient that it becomes a monumental task.

When I was referred to cardiology, it was a long game of phone tag. I don't answer calls from numbers I do not know and even when I saved their number into my phone, it was messages back and forth. Once we were able to connect in real time, the appointment was several months out.  While not the preferred outcome at the time, I accepted it because I knew they were busy with many patients. I did subsequently get an earlier appointment, which was a blessing.  But the thing is, when you're a new patient, you don't get access through the website to make appointments.  You have to be an existing patient of that practice. Frustrating, but it is what it is.

So, now I am trying to schedule an appointment with the pulmonary department. They reached out to me last week and I was unable to take the call.  That was a mistake, but again, I'm not answering if I don't know the number.  But here is the problem.  Since I can't make an appointment online, the hours that I can call them are while I am at work.  And while my work is ok with doing this sort of thing during business hours, I feel bad for trying to do that.  Yet, I have tried several times this week to no avail.  Being on hold is frustrating, I get that.  But after 15, 20 minutes, I can no longer stay on the call.  I hate that I have wasted that time, but I can only take so much time away from my own job to do this.

Ah, the endless cycle of fun that this is.  I will try again today to schedule the appointment.  Wish me luck because I'm going to need it!