Having a doctors appt at 3.10pm was a bad idea. Despite starting to wrangle children at 2ish, I still ended up with a screaming match with Small when it was time to go – he has no concept of time passing at all. Sigh. Anyway, we still arrived with time to spare and sat down with our books to wait. Well, they sat down with their books and I perused February’s issue of National Geographic, which I very much enjoyed. And who knew Alan Titchmarsh has a daytime chat show? Shows that even when not working, I don’t watch daytime TV 😉
So we waited. And we waited. And then we waited some more. Then a receptionist came out and asked who was waiting for my doctor and told us he was running 1 1/2 hours behind, did anyone want to rebook? That would have meant another 40 minutes waiting, so I got up to see her, and was told that actually I was next in, so we sat back down and waited a little more.
The doctor didn’t start with so much as an apology, which I thought would have been good form. Instead, when I said I was there for the Xray results, he said, I haven’t ordered an Xray. I explained that another doctor had, but that I couldn’t get an appt to see them until next week, and I’m away next week, and I’d quite like the results before then. He supposed he could do that, but I really ought to have seen the other doctor, and didn’t she book me an appt at the time? No, she didn’t, and I didn’t realise I was supposed to only see her.
At my last doctors’ surgery, it didn’t matter who you saw, they worked as a team. How was I to know that this surgery didn’t work like that? I felt very chastised, and given that I was having to manage a very bored Small during all of this, I don’t think I handled it desperately well. I’m pondering a gentle letter of complaint, I don’t think his attitude was acceptable.
Anyway, the good news is that there is no sign of wear and tear or any deterioration of the joint, so arthritis is ruled out. I’ve been prescribed diclofenax, so as soon as we’ve had something to eat I’ll try one of those – very bored with the level of pain today. (Though it’s not disabling, the doctor decided, and seemed disapproving that I was complaining at all 🙁 ).
Picked up prescription at Boots and after that Wilcos, where I bought the children a maths workbook each. Small got Maths 6-7: Workbook
which has the important criteria of having gold stars in it. Very Montessori 😆 And Big got Monstrous Maths (Magical Topics)
as well as a Berol Handwriting Cartridge Pen
(though not for £24, I think it was £1.45!).
So when we finally got back, obviously they wanted to sit down and do maths. At the same time. But differently. Sigh. Big got her pen working and then made a mistake and wailed about it being in ink, and Small sat there staring at the parents’ tip that says encourage children not to count on their fingers. More sighing. They both made it through to their first stickers, and then Big turned over the page and found improper fractions, and after telling me that I didn’t care, ended up being sent to her room.
I object to that. I object to sitting there, patiently explaining things, going over it in as many different ways as possible, being screamed at, and then being told I don’t care. So she didn’t come back down until tea was ready – I only sent her up for five minutes, but she took Harry with her 😉
And then Small decided he wouldn’t bother going to the toilet and would just wet on the floor. A perfect conclusion to the afternoon. So he screamed his way upstairs, having been told that if the computer was too distracting he couldn’t go on it for the rest of today (which was all of about 20 minutes given tea was nearly ready and then it’s bath and bed). So I scrubbed the floor, while Tim cleaned the boy, and that was the afternoon done with.
It seemed to last a very long time.
Leave a Reply