In addition to the sebaceous cyst that bought jewelry, the other result from my annual exam was learning that I am deficient in vitamins B12 and D, and potassium. The nurse called me on Monday with the news, and started firing off instructions to eat a banana every day (yuck) and to come in immediately to start a weekly series of B12 shots. When I started asking questions like "why?", she told me that I needed to come into the office this week to speak with Coral, the P.A. that I see.
Great. Shots every week, which likely means I have to fork over the $40 copay and a good 90 minutes of my time every single week. I grudgingly made an appointment for this morning, Friday.
What an experience! By the time that Coral saw me, one hour and fifteen minutes after my scheduled appointment time of 10:15 am, we were both annoyed. She told me that she had been double-booked at 8 am and then had patients scheduled for every 15 minutes, and she was angry that she was so late.
She got even more agitated when she realized why I was there - she said that there was no reason for me to come in, that we could have talked on the telephone. Yes, my B12 is low and she did go ahead and give me a shot, but she said that I can buy patches online that will do the same thing as shots; she has used them. Potassium may or may not be low - it is on the lower side of the acceptable range - so she had the nurse draw blood to retest. Again, there are supplements that I can take if this test shows I need them. Vitamin D I can take care of through OTC supplements.
She told the front office to refund my copay, apologized profusely again, and scheduled me for follow-up blood work in four months.
So, all in all, not as bad as I thought it would be...no weekly shots, no weekly $40 copays and I found a pharmacy in town that stocks the patches.
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