New patient

The week following Labor Day was a tough one for me. I had a cold with a fever, which then triggered a 3-day migraine.

I also had an unfortunate run-in with a very unprofessional nurse practitioner. My appointment had nothing to do with the cold and migraine. It was a routine “new patient” appointment I had scheduled some months ago.

I’ve had a heck of a time trying to find a doctor in Albuquerque. Previously (after some trial and error) I had found a decent doctor in Santa Fe. But I can’t go to her anymore because she was part of a clinic that only serves state employees. So when I quit my job, I lost my doctor.

You would think it would be easy enough to find a new doctor, but it’s been a disaster. It took me months to manage to get scheduled with this really terrible nurse practitioner. Luckily, the clinic realized his behavior was WAY, WAY OUT OF LINE, and they were apologetic and switched me to a different, much better nurse practitioner.

I would give you a blow-by-blow of what happened, but first of all, I don’t want to relive it. Secondly, you wouldn’t believe it anyway. You know when reality is so ridiculous that you hesitate to tell the truth because the truth is so outrageous that you know everyone is going to think you’re being biased and exaggerating? It was like that. Jaw-dropping unbelievable.

All I did was ask (politely) if maybe we could talk for a minute about my health history before we immediately change my prescriptions (since I was a brand new patient) and he completely lost his cool. He didn’t want his judgment questioned and he handled it very explosively. It was very unnerving, to say the least.

The replacement nurse practitioner seemed good, but now I’m feeling adverse to doing any of the follow-up testing I’m supposed to be doing because I don’t want to have anything to do with the medical establishment right now. Of course that’s not just because of this recent incident.

Anyone who has a long history of vague, chronic, hard-to-diagnose things like migraines has experienced disrespectful treatment by the medical establishment. Much better to go in with a broken arm or something they know how to fix.

There’s nothing really wrong with me; I just need all the various kinds of tests and things they recommend for people who are…uh…over 50. And the more adverse I am to going in, the less likely I’ll catch early anything that turns out to actually be wrong as I age.

I would give a lot for a really good doctor. And that’s another reason why Albuquerque is a challenge. Some areas of the country have many more doctors of much higher quality than we do here. I assume it’s because doctors can, to a great extent, choose where they want to live. And they can afford expensive places with lots of amenities like San Francisco, Boston, and Denver.

Who deliberately moves to Albuquerque? Ok, I did. But in 2005 I was single and had just quit my day job to make a go at supporting myself freelance. I couldn’t afford to stay where I was, just north of LA. I was trying to find a sunny place where I could live on $2,000 a month (before taxes, no benefits). I did not have the resources doctors have. If I had been a doctor, I would have simply gone straight down the coast to San Diego!

I googled physicians per capita by state, and discovered that New Mexico, although bad, isn’t even the worst. We have a doctor shortage problem in all the rural areas of this country and our aging demographics are likely to make it quite a bit worse, quite soon.

So if you’re lucky enough to have a good doctor, drop them a note or let them know you appreciate it!