Love & Help Us Columbia

Good Day, Folks!

Did you miss me?

I know you did.

The last 7 days of my life have been so hectic. I am just getting a minute to take a breath. But that is what I love about the road I'm traveling right now. Never a dull moment. Change is constant. Adaptation is a must.

And that's adaptation. Not assimilation.

But there are a few constants in my life that I know I can always count on: God, my family....and drug seekers.

In that order.

Clinic gets busier every day. The busier it gets, the higher it seems some of the patient's want to ramp up their craziness.

I had a female patient who we banned from even stepping foot into the clinic area because every time we saw her she seemed to be looking for a confrontation. Her story was that she broke her wrist 15 years ago and wanted me to give her Percocet, which is a schedule 2 drug that I can't prescribe anyway. I refused her because when I checked her in the SCRIPTS database she was getting narcotics from several sources --- including a doctor in Charlotte who she was traveling back and forth to see. If she was smart, she would have filled the script in North Carolina and then it would not have shown up in SCRIPTS because it only covers South Carolina controlled substances.

We got a report back from an orthopedic surgeon who saw her in consultation that said when he refused to give her pain medication, she requested that he amputate her hand.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

But she showed up on Friday and asked us to check her blood sugar. "No" was on the tip of my tongue, but KB, blessed spirit that she is, told her yes and asked her to sign in and have a seat in the waiting room.

Now this was around 3 pm. We were still seeing our regularly, scheduled patients and I was about to start a well-woman exam so she was going to be waiting for a few minutes.

I think 30 seconds passed before she walked back in screaming that we were "playing with [her] life." KB was in the room working up a patient, so I took a deep breath and tried to explain to her that we would be with her shortly, but that she walked in while we were really busy and she just needed to be patient for a few more minutes.

But the more I tried to reason with her, the louder she got. So I got loud, too.

And you can ask my sweet siblings, KB, or my cousin's wife, Keisha, but when I get loud, you might as well shut your operations down for a moment. I'm not going to stop until I know you've heard me.

So I (loudly) explained to her that she had been banned from the clinic for her prior behavior and that we were only seeing her as a courtesy. Not an obligation. I told her to leave or I would call security to remove her.

As I walked towards her, she started to back her way out of the door.

"I'm going to a higher authority to report you."

I thought to myself, "And??? You aren't the first and you won't be the last. What else?"

Then she played her trump card.

"I know you and the rest of these people smoke crack. You old crackhead m*****f*****!"

Now this caught me off guard. I've been called a lot of things in my life.

But never a "crackhead mofo". She get's major props for that one.

I wish all the irate patients had such original thoughts. I can only be called a "b-word" so many times before I get completely bored with it.

The really frustrating thing about this woman is that even after we banned her from our clinic, I made arrangements for her to see a provider at another site. And she behaved in the same way with him and now he has refused to see her.

More frustrating than that is that this lady really has some serious health problems including diabetes, high blood pressure and lung disease. But she never gave me a chance to help her with what I really needed to help her with because she is blinded by her addiction to those pain killers.

I'd like to manage her diabetes, get her blood pressure under control, help her to quit smoking and try to keep her out of the hospital for her frequent COPD flares.

But regardless of your race, religion or socio-economic status:
Help only helps those that help themselves.
And love don't love nobody that don't love themselves.

Be good, y'all.

Towanna