MY CHAT WITH MEGAN MCSNOTTY

I received a few emails asking about Elijah's referral to the orthopedist and here you go....

No call on Monday even though I was told,

"They should be calling first thing Monday morning!"

No call first thing Tuesday morning either.

I waited until 9:30am Tuesday morning to call the pediatrician's office for the name of the orthopedist so I could call for an appt. I was connected with the referral coordinator who was completely unaware of the need of the referral. She said apparently the note got lost in the shuffle b/c our appt was on a Sat when she does not work. She was very very very sweet and accommodating. I told her I wanted to get him in asap due to school starting and football season which he is desperate to start. She said she was going to call the orthopedist herself and call me right back. I thought yeah right but three minutes later we were back on the phone. She said, "I am faxing this over to Megan, the referral coordinator at the orthopedist, and she said she has appts for Thursday and she will process the paper work immediately! I am so sorry for the mix up but I told her it was urgent. Here is her name and the number for her direct line! If she hasn't called you by lunch then call her after lunch when the office reopens at 1pm!"

Welllll.........as you can imagine "immediately" did NOT happen! I am seriously thinking about sending Webster's dictionary to both the pediatrician's office and the orthopedist's office so they can better understand the meaning of "first thing" and "immediately"!! I understand people are busy so just say that! For pete's sake don't use "first thing" Monday morning or "immediately" if you don't mean it!! Anyway...I was running errands and knowing that "Megan" was probably busy I waited until almost 3pm to call her. I was giving my patience a try and well when I finally talked to her I was less than pleased with the attitude! Here was my conversation with little miss Megan McSnotty

Me ~ "Hello my name is Angela and I am calling about a referral for my son Elijah. I wanted to see if you received the fax with all the information you needed."

Megan ~ "I am alone today and I have an inch thick pile of faxes here. We normally call you!" (insert snotty attitude)

My thoughts were "if you are alone then you probably shouldn't have used the word "immediately" with the pediatrician's referral coordinator" BUT instead of being rude and understanding that people do get very busy I simply said, "Well they gave me your number and said to call you after 1pm if you hadn't called to set up the appt. I understand you are busy and you can call me back if needed. I was just verifying that you received the fax and making sure you had everything you need to process the referral."

Megan McSnotty ~ "Well that is just odd! They know we call you! They gave you my number!"

Again my thoughts were "No I just went in and strong armed them until they released the top secret number to me you idiot! Yes they gave it to me!" BUT instead I said, "Yes they gave me the number since they forgot to send the referral to set up the appt first thing Monday morning and they wanted to get him in asap!"

Megan McSnotty while shuffling through her inch thick pile of faxes replies with, "Well we can't even speak to you until three days after you have been to the hospital and worn a soft cast for three days."

Me getting peeved with her flip attitude ~ "Ok I understand you can't see people until three days maybe but you can't even speak to them to schedule the appt ~ I don't believe that for a second!"

Megan McSnotty ~ "We can't see people until three days after they leave the hospital. They have to wear the soft cast for three days prior to seeing the orthopedist."

Me ~ "First of all we did not go to the hospital! We went to the pediatrician's office. Secondly, if he needs to be in a soft cast three days prior to seeing the orthopedist then someone needs to give him a soft cast now!"

Megan McSnotty ~ "If you didn't go to the hospital, then how do you know his foot is even broken! Ok wait.......I see here he has a fracture of the tarsal bone. How did he break it?"

Me ~ "We aren't sure how he broke it. His foot was bothering him and I asked the pediatrician about it when I took him in for a physical. She Xrayed the foot just to be safe then said he had a broke bone in his foot. She then said it has either healed wrong or he has a cyst on his bone and needed to see an orthopedist but never put him in a soft cast. She just said he could ride his bike but no running or jumping!"

Megan McSnotty ~ "So if he got the soft cast on Saturday......."

Me clearly cutting off her train of thought ~ "He does not have a soft cast ma'am!"

Megan McSnotty with smoke exiting her ears as she tries to think must not of heard me as she thinks out loud some more ~ "ok so soft cast Saturday then the earliest appt would be today but I don't have a doctor here today sooooo...."

Me ~ "Ma'am can you hear me?"

Megan McSnotty ~ "Yes! I am just trying to figure out when to get him in. If this is his third day in the soft cast, then he should've been seen today or tomorrow butttttt......"

Me ~ "Ok Megan. I need you to LISTEN to me! I have now told you three times ~ HE-IS-NOT-WEARING-A-SOFT-CAST!! If he needs to wear a soft cast for three days prior to being seen in your office, then I need to know where to go to get the soft cast put on his foot! You are acting like that is an imperative step in the process so if he needs it, I need to get it!"

Megan McSnotty ~ "He's not in a soft cast?"

Me ~ oh how my thoughts were running a million mph in my head and it took EVERYTHING IN ME NOT TO FLIP OUT ON THIS IDIOT WHO ACTUALLY HAS A JOB WHEN AN INTELLIGENT PERSON LIKE ME IS CURRENTLY UNEMPLOYED!! ugh!

My reponse was simply ~ "Not unless a sock counts!"

Megan McSnotty replies with "HUH?"

Me ~ "Huh is really not professional but NO for the fourth time he is NOT in a soft cast! Does he need one on three days prior to scheduling the appt?"

Megan McSnotty ~ "No we are just going to have to skip that step. I have an appt open on Thursday at 2pm. Will that work for you?"

Me ~ "Yes!"

Megan McSnotty ~ "Ok see you Thursday at 2pm." as she gets ready to hang up!

Me ~ "Excuse me! There is a little matter of the name of the clinic, Doctor's name or I don't know perhaps the location to the office IF you plan on us arriving for our appt!"

Megan McSnotty proceeds to give us all the info says to keep him completely inactive and the call ends!

What did I think after this call?

How in the world does an idiot like her have a job while I am on unemployment? She obviously has NO children if she expects me to keep my seven yr old boy "completely inactive" for two days. Yeah right!

I am thinking of talking with the orthopedist named Dr. Huang (pronounced Wong) about taking over for the little girl! I understand all too well that she very well could have been busy especially since she was alone BUT she should not have had such an attitude or she should have politely taken my offer for a call back. Don't tell the peds office you will handle it immediately if you are unable to do so! I also understand overdemanding patients can annoy workers at a doctor's office but the over use of "immediately" and "first thing" causes stress for patients when not followed through. If it is going to take a few days, then say it will take a few days. My other question is ~ if by three o'clock she hadn't even looked through the "inch thick pile of faxes", then what does she consider immediately! If I wouldn't have called, then the good Lord above only knows when she would've called me!!