"So how have you been?", she asked.
"Fine"
"Any issues?"
"Nope"
"Any lows?
"No more than normal. A few, but manageable"
"When?"
"Right now"
"Any thoughts of hurting yourself?"
"Nope, not recently"
"Good"
"How about highs?"
"Yeah a few"
"What were those like?"
"ummm, just, you know, UP, but nothing like manic, or illegal", I shrugged my shoulders and laughed.
"Well, that's good", she smiled.
And that is how a session with my Doctor generally goes now. Then she asked what I've been up to, I told her I was training for a 5k and I may not survive it. We discussed the reasons, and I told her I decided to get my body and my mind in shape finally. She smiled and seemed genuinely happy with my answers. She asked for my advice on how I ate, what did I avoid. She's really nice. My last doctor never looked up from the prescription pad, just asked a few questions about side effects and answered a lengthy call. Then handed me my prescriptions for a 3 month supply and I was out the door.
I always found it kind of ironic that a Doctor will diagnose you with PTSD, Bi-polar presenting (which is a oblique way of saying your Bi-polar but your lows are so low that your baseline would be a normal person's low and your high's would be a normal person's baseline, I can't even get Bi-polar right apparently), severe clinical depression, then send you out the door with enough drugs to commit a very effective and painless suicide. Interesting. Not that I've thought about it. Much. Just saying. Some things are dumb.
Hey, my turn tomorrow at 4pm. YIPPEE! This is my first visit with this new doctor, so I really hope he's not one of the look down at the RX pad and hand out the meds and we're done...I'd like a little discussion actually...so, we'll see. I'll keep you posted. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI like this Doc, but I also have my therapist who lets me talk, a lot. :) So it's cool. I'm real happy with the services now. The co-pay? Not so much. But that's not their fault. I need a job with better benefits.
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