One Medical Group

Okay – I’m going to try to make this as brief of a post as possible… but there’s a lot to it.

So since weaning Athena in 2012, I’ve still been lactating a bit.  Not cups of milk but a few drops here and there.  Usually when I’m caring for her (which still amazes me how the human body just knows to do that).  I didn’t think much of it till it had been about a year since weaning her and milk was still coming.  That wasn’t as worrisome as the amount of abuse the girls would take at the behest of Mademoiselle when she would sleep with us in the bed.  She would get to kicking and punching them like she had a vendetta and in the dead of her sleep, her aim was impeccable.    One night about 3 months ago, she gave the right girl such a swift kick right in the nipple, I lost my breath.  After that night, right girl was sore for a few days… and normally it’s sore then it eventually gets better.  But it wasn’t getting better… it was staying sore… and then suddenly over a course of 2 weeks got progressively worse.  To the point where I coud feel a warm tender mass behind the nipple.  While I was fairly certain that this wasn’t evil black titty death (read: cancer) coming to claim me… it may be some malfunction with the ducts – and since I plan to use them again some day, better get to investigating.  I tried to make an appt with my GYN but it was so far away and the weekend right before the appointment it got to the point where I couldn’t hug people.  I couldn’t lay on my stomach.  If anything lightly grazed the jacket that was over the blouse that was over the bra that was covering my nipple, I’d wince in pain. I have found this useful reference online and considered taking this natural medicine. I had to get something done QUICK.

I scheduled an appointment at an imaging center to have a mammogram and an ultrasound done.  Knowing that i’d have to come out of pocket, but the convenience of doing it right away meant more to me than dollars.  After many hours, copious titty smashings and rubbings with sonogram wands, the conclusion for the right breast was that I had clogged ducts.  Something called mammary duct ecstasia.  So basically, the ducts where milk normally flows, got clogged – maybe a little infected and where milk would normally be… pus is now collecting there (yuck – right?).  If left unattended, it could be come an abscess and need to be drained (help).    The sonograms from left to right breast were night and day… there was definitely something wrong.  The fact that they found a 10mm nodule in the LEFT breast that they want to biopsy and examine is fodder for another post coming shortly.  Let’s focus on one thing at a time.

The problem with the imaging center is that they were so hot to get my cash payments for the visit that day (900 bucks) and the impending biopsy (1900 bucks) that they completely spazzed on giving me treatment for the reason I CAME THERE. I left, still in pain – even moreso from the boobie mashings and no recourse to do anything but to suffer till they got their biopsy money  till I had the biopsy.  So I took matters into my own hands.   I headed to my friend Google and started searching around.  Not even sure what I typed in but at a certain point One Medical Group popped up in my search results.  “The doctor’s office. Reinvented,” it boasted.  “oh yeah?  let’s see how,” I thought.  And got to a site where they basically said that for your money when you go see a doctor you should a) be seen at the time the appointment was made for – not an hour later; b) be able to talk to the doctor at length about what is wrong and why you’re there and c) get real solutions from a knowledgeable human that will treat you with respect and dignity.  Could it be??  what’s the catch?  Well, to be a part of this elite group of patients, you have to pay about $200 a year for a subscription fee.  “Less than the cost of a latte a week” the intro video sells.  I said to myself… if my flex benny card doesn’t put the subscription through, then it wasn’t meant to be.  I put in all the info and WALA – i became a member of One Medical.  They boasted same day appointments, but admittedly it was already 4:00 so that wasn’t going to happen – but they had appointments the following day – but also not at the location closest to me.  This  was important enough for me to travel so I booked the appointment.

I arrived at the offices a few moments after 4:00 (my scheduled appointment).  Rain had opened up and sent me detouring to find an umbrella to purchase.  I apologized for my tardiness and the lady asked me for my insurance card.  Then she asked me to have a seat.  I had filled out their pre-forms on their website so there wasn’t a gob of paperwork to go over when I got there.  The offices were gorgeous.  Looked like brand new dot com offices from back in the late 90s.  I sat there for less than 5 minutes when my doctor emerged.  A young woman with a cropped haircut who promptly brought me back to her office and sat me down.   2 complaints I had logged were the issue with my breast and a strange patch that keeps popping up on my inner elbow.  She asked me what was going on and I gave her the missive as well as a copy of the report from the mammogram. She listened and took copious notes… asked some questions along the way.  Then she did something that BLEW. ME. AWAY.  She got up out of her chair and walked over to me, took my arm to display the strange patch on the inside of my elbow into plain sight.  She got right up on it… and looked at it carefully.  Then??  Then she did it.

SHE TOUCHED IT.

She felt it for topography.  She pressed on it to see blood flow.  She noticed little bumps on it and remarked that it was even a little scaly.  And folks…. she did this? WITH NO GLOVES ON.  “They still make them like you?” I thought.

All the while in my head I’m thinking… wait… she’s not afraid that all the bacteria from it would immediately jump on to her and make her die?  This was the first time in AGES that I’d had a doctor actually touch me where I said it hurt to see why it hurt.  Then she proceeded to do the same thing with my breast, examining the left (normal) one for a control and then the right one to see what was wrong.  Felt it for temperature.  Examined the entire breast to make sure that the one spot I was referencing wasn’t the only one that might have trouble.  THEN made her diagnoses.

She went on to tell me that she’d prescribe me an antibiotic to help begin the process of healing and relief from the pain but that she really wanted me to go see a breast specialist.  She was going to refer me and that in referring, their practice tries to refer to good doctors who have great bedside manner and positive reviews from their patients.  WHAT???  I mean… doctors still do that?  They don’t just refer each other to their doctor friends and call it a day?  Then she started asking me about the meds I was taking and was concerned when I didn’t have full answers for her as to why I’m taking them.  Most alarming to her was that I was taking diabetes meds w/o  the doctor officially diagnosing me with diabetes.  She asked me if I still wanted to see him.  I said no, called him a quack and said that I needed a refill on the Armour Thyroid that he had me on.  She said she’d be glad to give me a refill on the med but just wanted to do a little research on it.   I thought she meant, after I leave and she’s seen a gang of other patients and then maybe later this week some research and get back to me for like… next week.  Nuh uh.  She researched right then and there.  Finally she looked up from her computer screen and stated that she did not feel right refilling the prescription to this med because there are warnings on it from the FDA – namely that the facility that produces this pill had unsanitary conditions – like… the water not being sterile.  And she asked me to please get the blood test results from that doctor and also take some new ones with them in order to get to the bottom of things… to the bottom of what could be wrong over all.  Why my blood sugar is off kilter and why I have the strange red reoccurring patch on the inside of my elbows.  Might all be connected to something else.    She prescribed me a topical salve for the blotch for now and called both prescriptions in to the pharmacy right before me.  She asked me to come back in about a 1 1/2 – 2 weeks so we could follow up and look at some of the blood results.  Then walked me out to the front desk.

I got there at 4.  I left at 5.  And 55 minutes of the time was spent in the actual care of the doctor.   The one visit was worth every penny of the subscription cost.   I recommend it highly to anyone that can afford it who feels like I did – floundering in the sea of highly decorated doctors with mediocre attitudes about caring for their patients.  It was wonderful.  I look forward to going back very soon for all that was promised!

I hope they expand greatly and bring back the former standard that was expected from doctors.

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