I had a doctor’s appointment a few days ago.
I arrived ten minutes early at 8:20 and texted “ARRIVED’ in response to their text of that morning.
At 8:40, ten minutes after the appointment time I again texted “Arrived?” Because I didn’t want to be pushy.
I made excuses – Good Friday, early appointment, significant people might be late — and at 9:10 I called the phone number.
Shock. Apologies. Go ahead and go right in.
I explained to the receptionist that I had texted twice and got no response, and she checked and they had received no text. She said that I was late, and even past my 15 minute grace period, and I had missed my appointment.
I showed her the texts, again, and she said they hadn’t gotten the texts.
“Will I be charged for this visit?” I asked.
“No.”
“Then I would be glad to reschedule my appointment.” (Remember that for later.)
She said, “I’ll check with the doctor and I’ll see if she can fit you in.”
I had things to convey to the doctor, mainly tidying up some errors in my family history, like my biological father’s cause of death, and I didn’t want to be fit in.
Instead, I said, “I would be glad to reschedule my appointment.”
“Let me check with the doctor.”
I paced over to the glass door and read all the signs backward and tried not to fume.
She came back and said, “She says she can fit you in.”
I said, “I would be glad to reschedule my appointment.”
She looked surprised, and then said, “Oh, so you want to reschedule your appointment.”
This time I paused before I said “Yes” very significantly.
And I understand, she wanted to make it all right, and was focused in getting me fit in, and was unaware I didn’t want to be there, double-mask or not, and “I would be glad to reschedule my appointment” isn’t the same as saying, “Screw this noise, I am rescheduling my appointment.” And it was partly my fault for waiting so patiently.
And I would have left thinking that, only I was still in the parking lot when a different person called and explained what happened: “Sometimes that system just loses texts.”
So I rescheduled with her, which, as you know, I WAS GLAD TO DO, and then I asked if when I returned next week if I should wait for a return text, and she giggled and said, “Oh, no, don’t do that.”
I would have been fine without the giggle, but the giggle suggested to me that this was just a great lark we’d had, so i just said fine, thank you, goodbye, and hung up.
So I can’t really blame the doctor’s office, and I can’t blame myself for being extra polite for once in my life, so all I can do is blame this cruel pandemic so screwing up the simple task of visiting the doctor.