For day 47, I went to a free doctors visit.
In the US, if you want health insurance, but you don’t have an income, your only option is free health care. Even a billionaire who wasn’t working would be forced to go on public aid. At least, this is what the insurance agencies told me.
So, by force of the government, that’s the insurance I’m on right now. For a free service if you need it, it’s great! But in all honesty, a huge mess that’s caused me a lot of problems, often worse problems than if I didn’t have insurance at all. So this is a system I try to avoid. But after my stevia challenge, I realized I needed to get blood work to see if stevia is responsible for symptoms I’ve experiencing.
Yesterday’s, doctor’s visit was rife with issues. Recounting the experience back to my spouse, we realized it could be a comedy bit. I won’t go into it everything.
Above all, the doctor was extremely uncommunicative and dismissive of me. I tried to talk about my concerns and what I’d tried. But it was like talking to a brick wall. That’s the gist of it.
What I learned:
People who have authority often don’t listen to others. As my neighbor said, if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
The biggest lesson here is not to criticize the doctor. Instead, recognize that the doctor’s poor behavior was a demonstration. It was a visceral lesson that taught me how foolish it is to dismiss people. Now I know not to do this to others. So thank you doctor for teaching me this.
How Am I Like The Doctor?
I have to ask, in what way do I commit this behavior? Where can I correct this behavior in myself?
The truth is I’m no better than this doctor. I find myself assuming I know better than others. And I’m often wrong! I’m an ass! But that’s ok! And it’s ok that the doctor was an ass. Maybe she’ll change one day. If I can change, so can she.
I need to remember that I can learn from people who “know less” than me. As a coder, I’ve learned often baby newbies will know something I don’t.
There’s endless information. Therefore, most people don’t have the same knowledge set. That means we can learn from everyone.
Always clarify, listen, ask questions. And most important, communicate!
Do not belittle people and think behind their backs! Talk, even if you disagree. Absorb the full story of the other person.
What Part Did I PLay
I wonder what could I have done differently? Maybe, I could have been more assertive. I could have asked the doctor what she was thinking when she made a judgmental face at me. Or when she ordered tests, I could have clarified if she ordered the tests I wanted.
In hindsight these are obvious, but in the moment the experience was new and caught me off guard. If I kept better track of my principles, I would be faster to act on them.