Monday, June 29, 2009

Please Read Me the Chart

Except for a few hours I went into work Tuesday I have been gone from my office and phones for nearly a week. Today I am off because I am taking today off for the forth of July, since holiday falls on Sunday this year. Even though I am feeling much better today, I don’t feel stellar, so, I am enjoying my holiday in “sick mode”.

More good news. I was sick of the pink eye I had that had quiet developed on Saturday and as I suffered through the night I realized there was an Eye World just up the street from house, and I knew they kept some kind of doc on sight. And sure enough when I called the girl who answered informed me there was a doc and he could write a script pink eye= conjunctivitis but I would have to make it in before 3:30 because when the doc was splitting. So I jumped in my chair and was gone.

Places like Eye World have always intrigued me—they are like the car dealerships of the eyes; everything is a little make believe from the girls on staff, to the frames and slick deals the staff tries to foist on you when all you want is a screw for the temple of your frames. When I roll in the door I am greeting my a little Hispanic chick, who reminds me of a skinny, short “Ugly Betty” but she is on the phone so it is difficult to tell if she is talking to me—so I did the whole “ are you talking to me thing” pointing at my self. But as I do this another “eye” person who is helping a mother daughter duo screams, “just a moment and I’ll help you!!” I could see Ugly Betty was pissed so I smiled at both and backed my chair to the far end of the waiting area and vainly searched for something to read.

Ugly Betty must have been new on staff because she had to keep asking the women who screamed at me technical questions about entering things into the computer cash register. Each time Ugly Betty had to ask one of these questions got a just a little more pissed. All I needed was a doc to look at my eyes and write me script and I had been to this place before to when I bought my last pair of glasses. But Ugly Betty shoved a clip board into my hands and handed me a dull pencil and asked I fill out the history and she headed back to wake up the doc or what ever.

The experience with the doc was as weird if not weirder then my experience with Ugly Betty. The guy presented himself in a set of wrinkled scrubs from the local medical school. He yawned , scratched his head and walked up to me and asked if I could get out of the chair. I thought he was interested in the extend of my disability but in a second ity dawned on me he wanted to know if I could get from my chair to a exam chair. I told the guy all I needed was a script to get the conjunctivitis gone from my eyes. Could he just not look at my eyes and give me what I needed but no, he was going to do the whole thing and we did. I almost slid of the chair twice and it took all of my strength to hold myself in the exam chair. We eventually got the exam finished and gratefully slid back into my powerchair and I got my script. This charade cost me $45.00 and of course , Ugly Betty did not know how to code my insurance I into the computer to bill the insurance people the other women with the beehive hair do was not going to assist. But I had my script and beat it over to Shop Ko next door and got the script filled $4.00.

By 9:00 PM most of the red had left my eyes and I was on my way to recovery. I am still coughing but I AM going to work tomorrow!

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