Saturday, January 17, 2015

Weekend reruns

The phones were really ringing today, and so a few calls went to voice mail. Annie had me listen to this one:

"Hi, this is Suzy Frazzled. I'm a social worker involved in the medical case of Kathy Smith. I'm calling to see if you have any records on her. You probably don't, because none of the other doctors on the list she gave me have ever heard of her, either, and I'm on my last damn nerve dealing with her. Anyway, she's blaming every freaking illness she has on a piece of cotton that was left in her ear 2 years ago after she had a glob of wax taken out. Thinks she's won the freaking lottery, apparently. What? No Bob, I don't have that info here. I've been working on Mrs. Smith all damn morning. How come you don't get these cases? The boss gives me all this shit, and it's not fair. Where the hell do these people come from and why do they always end up on my desk? Why can't I get normal cases? Oh, sorry, hello? Anyway, please call me back and let me know if you've ever heard of this lady."

14 comments:

MSGMD said...

Well, had you?

Unknown said...

Don't leave us in suspense, we need to know if you put the cotton in her ear!

PGYx said...

May God bless the social workers of the world. Masochists aside, who else would willingly go into their field these days?

MA said...

Were you the doc who left the errant cotton ball in the patient's ear?? LOL! I think not.

Seriously social workers are overworked and we need more of them.

Anonymous said...

Dr. G left the cotton in there when her prosthetic ear unexpectedly fell off and he went screaming into the hallway.

Candi said...

Social workers are quite nice people if you're polite to them and honestly try to help yourself. They get an unnecessary bad rap in too many circles.

When I was in WorkFirst over a decade ago, DSHS was so shorthanded WorkFirst was offering to send unemployed people to social worker training -the only program of that length they were offering to pay for in their program to pay for education to get people working. (Most programs were 6-18 months at most; the social worker training programs available were minimum 2 years.)

I didn't go for it because I had a hard enough time dealing with some of the people in the waiting room; there really are people who exploit the system for all they can get, and make everyone else who needs help look bad.

Anonymous said...

I check back here periodically to see why I hate doctors and I am happy to say you never disappoint. You are all arrogant jerks, and I only hope that when you have a medical problem, and you will, you are treated by doctors who are exactly like you.

Tab said...

As a social worker, I totally get it. I say that daily... Who the hell left THAT crapy case on my desk. Just last week a client spit in my face. It was glorious.

migraineur said...

@Anon 2:10AM- What bug crawled up your behind and died? Wait a tic...I mean who left the cotton in your ear? That's a really rude comment for somebody you've never met in your life, and if that's the attitude you run around with, no wonder they ran away before removing the cotton. As a suggestion, don't get a endoscopy.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 2:10 AM:

Am I correct in assuming that you're Kathy Smith?

Tabor said...

Several of my blog connections have linked you so I have to come here and see what it is all about! Funny stuff but painfully realistic.

Anonymous said...

If Anon 2:10 am were a regular reader s/he would know that most of Dr Grumpy's frustrations comes from caring about his patients.
And I have nothing but sympathy for that social worker.

Anonymous said...

At the risk of sounding like a jerk, it is all to often that certain patients take up an inordinate amount of time not due to the extent of their illness, but due to the extent of their insanity. To clarify not medically insane, but rather just plain old crazy as shit.

ICU RN said...

Along with the cotton in her ear, she probably never knew she had COPD AND CHF-no one ever provided teaching, and she's lookin to sue for that, too.

 
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