Since Xmas, I have been trying to hook up a person with a specialized doctor they need to see. By “hook up” I mean “locating that kind of doctor” for them, since they seem to be incapable of asking their doctor themselves for some stupid reason. Hey, I don’t mind doing research for people, so long as when I hand them the information I find, they don’t quibble about it. If you want to quibble, you do your own damn research.
Even though I was completely opposed to getting involved, I did so anyway, and lo and behold, I found one of these specialists right in their hometown that has been there for 30+ years and has a fabulous reputation. It’s the sort of thing someone could pick up a damn phone book and find … or, you know, ask their primary care physician, but I send the information along anyway. Not my problem, right? I’m just the Master of the Internet. I can find a doctor’s office in a specific town handling a specific problem, in less than 2.5 seconds. Go me. It might have taken them a whole second longer using the yellow pages. :rolleyes:
So the information gets passed along, and then the quibbling begins. “Is that the only place in all of Texas?” Well, no, but seeing as driving in one lane on one highway and taking one exit to get to my house is too much trouble, because they “don’t drive in Austin”, I was under the impression they might not want to drive in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, or Dallas, especially since exactly what they are looking for is RIGHT THERE in their own town. Perhaps the reason it’s too much trouble to come to my house has nothing at all to do with driving in Austin, huh? Yeah, color me surprised about that.
I then sent the entire list of every licensed doctor covering that specialization in Texas telling them to knock themselves out picking one. There are about 200, most of them in those big cities they don’t like driving in. All of which, I also point out, is a moot freaking point, because she is going to have to discuss it with her primary care physician first anyway since she has insurance.
Then the excuses start: “It doesn’t do any good if you don’t have the money to pay for it.” How nice then that a prosthetic device which this person requires to walk and drive just so happens to be one of those things covered by her insurance, and that this sort of thing is also one of those things it is surprisingly easy to get help getting! The bottom line is you have to want to get it, and you have to get the ball rolling yourself. No one is going to help you if you sit in your house making excuses or going on vacations or buying every new scrapbooking tool you see. How long do you think it would take me to get a new prosthetic, if I needed one, even without health insurance? As long as it took me to get in to see a doctor and talk to my bank about a second mortgage (and we don’t even own all of our house yet like the person in question). Like hell would I give up on driving and walk on crutches for the rest of my life crying “woe is me” even if it meant eating rice and beans forever. But then, I believe in sacrifice in order to get what I need (and sometimes what I just want), and I am not a defeatist.
They have the information now. They can either use it or not. I don’t want to hear anything more about it. I can’t (and won’t) sacrifice anything myself to help people who obstinately refuse to at least meet me half way and who are actually in a better position to get their own damn needs met than I am. It would only lead to me having to drag them along kicking and screaming and declaring it impossible every step of the way, as it already has been. I don’t need that in my life. Make a damned appointment at the doctor’s office, show him the sorry state of affairs, ask him what to do, and press onward like everyone else on the planet would … or shut the hell up and hobble around on crutches forever. As my dad would have said … shit or get off the pot but don’t just sit there whining.
My compassion has limits, and those limits have now been reached as far as this case goes. I am done with it.