My chiropractor's an idiot.

Stop reading now if you don't want to hear a bunch of complaining. Cause quite frankly, my day has just kind of sucked & my pissy girl emotions are getting the best of me & I just feel like complaining....ok?! It's just the damn truth about how I feel.

I feel like shit.

You know what sucks? Being a girl once a month. I have such awful cramps right now I can hardly move. I mean at least I finally started it which means I should be done by the time I have to travel. Sleep beckons but laying down means all this crap in my sinuses will drain right down into the back of my throat and there's already enough of that crap back there. Ugh. I HATE being sick.

I also hate:

Doctors.

I finally threw in the towel & went to see a doctor today since I've been sick for three weeks and definitely want to be better before my interview with Delta.  I spent more time waiting than I spent with the actual physician.  Then I realized that's pretty much always been the case. You spend more time waiting at the doctor's office than you spend WITH the actual doctor. It's ridiculous. What are we paying them for?!

Basically, they get paid to write me a damn prescription.
So these antibiotics better work.

Thank God for the woman at Fred Meyer's pharmacy though, she was wonderful & even took the trouble to call my insurance so I didn't have to pay $46 for my medication. I only paid $9 instead. :) But then while I was waiting for my prescription, I had a phone call with my stupid Chiropractor. Seriously. Ridiculous. I hate them & will never recommend them to anyone. Except for Lori, a massage therapist they have there. Natural Way Chiropractic can kiss my ass.

Long story short (well maybe long story long) I had to see them after I got into a car accident back in February of 2010. A drunk driver totaled my brand new Honda Fit hitting me from the driver's side. My neck & shoulder were messed up and yes the chiropractors have helped a lot actually, but having never had an prior chiropractic care, I really didn't know what to expect or what to look for in a good chiro. Anyway at Natural Way they tend to file you in like cattle. I mean that's a total exaggeration but they have 6 rooms with flow through doorways so the doctors can go make their adjustments & move onto the next patient. I mean it's quite an efficient system and kinda of nice to just be able to get in & get out of there anyway especially if you really didn't want to be there in the first place but if you think they care, they don't. That's how I felt anyway. I've wasted so much of my time having to drive to & from appointments and making appointments & talking to doctors. The whole case has been a waste of my time. So hopefully my attorneys will make it right.  It's all very stupid & unfair of course. But life isn't fair.

Anyway, my chiro put me on a standard recovery plan, 3 times a week for like 2 or 3 months, then twice a week for a couple more months then 1 a week for another month then bi-weekly for two months then once a month for the last two months. Something like that. Anyway, my last visit with them was like any standard visit. I checked in, laid down on those table back stretching things, stuck my face in the head holder & turned it on and allowed the machine to do its thing while I waited around 10 minutes for my chiro. He adjusted me then said alright you're all done. I remember asking him, "So that's it then?" And he said, "Yep, you're good to go" "So..well, when I first  consulted with a lawyer, he advised me to get a clean bill of health before I closed my claim" "Yeah, that's basically what I've put in your notes, that you're all good to go." "Oh, ok, thanks."

Now, you have to understand, I didn't want to see any kind of doctor in the first place. I find them, in general, kind of worthless. They usually tell me something I already know & they're not the best people persons. When I first went into Natural Way, they gave me this beautiful presentation about how important health is all around and an orientation overview about chiropractic care & how it can help people lead healthier more fulfilling lives. Then they went through the trouble of giving me a full exam with xrays and this machine thing that read all my vertebrae & whatnot. They gave me another full exam partway through my treatment to show me the progress that was being made. I was pretty impressed up until the third & final part of my treatment with them. I expected to get another full exam upon completion of my treatment with them. But if you read the paragraph above, no such exam was done. The doctor never asked if I felt like I was good to go. He didn't bother. Which in my book, equals; he really didn't care. My second to last visit, a month prior to Dec 4th (give or take a few days) my chiro had thrown out there that I might want to consider coming in to see them once a month to get adjustments.

I must have misinterpreted this to mean that I need continual care.  So the last time I saw a chiropractor for an adjustment, it was back in the beginning of December. Since then I've spoken to my attorneys who have been wondering how my treatments been going. I told them that I'm basically done at Natural way but that I have noticeable discomfort still in my left shoulder right by the blade & my spine & that I've been thinking about seeking a second opinion. So I did. I went all the way out to Lynden, WA to see a chiro who got WONDERFUl reviews. Dr. Olsen. And he WAS great. He said I didn't even have to tell my other chiro's I went to see him but he gave me his professional opinion & told me I should go ask Natural Way for a referral to a physical therapist so I had one on record for my health insurance & car accident case reports. He also told me that PT is something that should have been recommended earlier in my treatment plan and not so late after the fact. He seemed surprised it hadn't been recommended, especially if my treatment at natural way has already been completed.

So I thanked Dr. Olsen who realllly tried to find the best solution for me without dissing his fellow professionals and called Natural Way to ask for a referral to seek additional methods of treatment elsewhere. And here's basically what my doctor told me today:

"Well, I've already written in the notes that you've completed your treatment with us and everything up until this point has been to do with the car accident and anything beyond this point does not. If I were to open up your case again it makes us both look indecisive."

INDECISIVE??!

I was never informed that my case was closed by them. So basically, here's how I interpreted what he said:
"Well, I already closed your case & told them you were good to go. If I were to take back what I said & tell them you need additional treatment by writing you a referral to someone else, it makes me look like an idiot & like I don't know what I'm doing."

I'm SO upset. I'm mad that Natural Way has basically said "Hasta la Vista, we've almost exhausted your PIP coverage so this is all the treatment we can give you."

You know what else my doctor told me? He fed me some bullshit about how he only mentioned I should come in once a month to see them for my health And that he was only looking out for me in my best interest. What a crock of shit. They did not complete their job. Bottom line is, I don't feel like I was taken care of or that they had my best interests at heart. They were after my money.

When I mentioned that I sort of expected to receive a full final examination, he fed me MORE bullshit and said, "Well, sometimes I do exams but sometimes I don't, I figured that since you had already had 60 visits with us, I didn't want to charge your PIP another $500 dollars just to say what I already knew & wrote in your notes."

So basically, Doctor, let me get this straight: You didn't think it was important enough for me to get a final exit examination and a "clean bill of health" like I had mentioned?  Because you were worried that my PIP had been exhausted??  I'm pretty sure that's what he was saying.  He was either afraid they wouldn't get paid or he quite frankly, really didn't care if I was fully treated and well. Healthy & more fulfilling lives MY ASS.

SO PISSED. This might be my review for Natural Way...maybe that's too extreme.

I'm just pissy. Obviously. I feel shitty all around. Emotionally my period has me all up in arms & crying over every stupid little thing and physically my period has me in semi-fetel position. Then there's also this stupid cold that's been causing my head to feel ten times larger than its actual size. I've already been through one whole box of kleenex at over halfway through my next box which means my nose is about as read as Rudolph's. So THAT hurts too. My throat is sore & swollen & my only saving grace is that my physician earlier gave me a note that says I can't work until Thursday when hopefully the antibiotics will have kicked in and I'll be feeling loooooads better. So I don't have to go into work tonight and cough all over everything. Or blow my nose a thousand times.

It's ridiculous though really that I needed a doctor's note to get work off. My work can be real stupid sometimes. It's just gross for me to be this sick and working around food. I mean really? It's a no brainer I shouldn't be there. So three weeks after the fact, I'm still sick and apparently getting my coworkers sick. I mean sure, this crap is going around everywhere but I'm probably not doing anyone any favors by coming into work all sick & gross, hacking up phlegm and all that jazz--need I say more? Absolutely ridiculous. I REALLY hope I get this job with Delta so I don't have to deal with a dumb bitch of manager anymore who told me something along the lines of "we've all had to work when we've been sick Nina."  And who constantly is just a thorn in my side I swear.  Why do you have to be such a biiiig bitch all the time....?

Ugh. I think I feel slightly better. Don't go to Natural Way Chiropractic. They're a load of dung. That's my final word on that.