Psychotomy

So, K had his “comprehensive physical” today. Basically they have me drop him off before 9 and pick him up after 3 (so, 7 and 5:30 :/) for what is, really, about 30 minutes of tests. When I worked at Goddard and could stay home easier, or take half days meaningfully, I’d usually go in and sit in one of the rooms for the 90-minutes that it drags on. But I can’t do that now, so he gets to sit in their small metal cages and be bored out of his effing mind all day :/

OTOH, the physical is free annually (or twice annually maybe?) and so are his shots, covered by his plan (so, not really free, since I’m paying a monthly fee, but whatever). I signed a bunch of forms and filled out a bunch of information they should really already have (like, pets name, phone #’s, etc) and on the billing form I wrote in to call me if the price was over 25$.

Got a call ~10 or 10:30 (told you it only took like an hour). So, first off, I’m worried because they really have no reason to call me unless there’s a problem. Turns out K has an ear infection. Last time, this was a PITA because he did NOT appreciate people playing with his ears when he had an ear ache. Shocking, I know. But OK, we’ll cope. They want permission to run a 40$ test to find out what kind of ear infection, so they can prescribe the right meds. OK, sure, makes sense.

I go to pick him up. “Your total comes out to be 257$” Woah, come again? Last I heard it was around 60, counting the 40$ procedure. Are you telling me there’s 200$ worth of medication? “Oh, no sir, lets see. There’s X for his ears. Then there’s Y, that’s an antibiotic” “uh, then what was the first one?” “Thats for his ears” “For the EAR infection?” “yeah”

she pawned me off on the doctor because I wasn’t understanding “there’s these drops for his ears, and then there’s this antibiotic”. Doctor came in (oh, look, another new vet; criminy), and started telling me that this is for his ears, 3 drops, each ear, twice daily. “I thought he only had an infection in one ear?”

Then he went into a long thing about how animals were like people (really? mammals share traits with other mammals? Oh Em GEE!) and the ears, the nose, the eyes, the mouth, were all openings to a central shaft (uh, that’s not quite accurate, but thanks for dumbing it down) and if we just put drops in one ear it moves to the other, and if we put them in the second it moves to the first so we have to put drops in both ears so it has nowhere to move to! (uh, you just said “central shaft” and named 7 openings. Having now covered 2, technically, don’t I need to put drops in his mouth, nose, and behind his eyeballs? dude, c’mon) But OK, that makes sense.

“And this is the antibiotic” “uh, wait, what was the first one then?” “that’s drops, for his ears” were back to this are we? Another 5 minutes of him treating me like a moron, I finally get him to use his words long enough to establish “Oh, he has two kinds of ear infections?” He has a yeast infection in his ears, thus the eardrops, and a bacterial infection in his bloodstream, thus the oral antibiotic. Although I’m not sure the latter is actually an ear infection, but DK’s ear infection was handled by oral antibiotic, so I’ll accept it.

But I turned down the ear wash. I’d rather just fight for the ear drops, not pouring saline in his ears too. “well, this usually lasts people for years” Excellent. so it’s not really NEEDED per-se. I mentioned that he was handing out meds like an HMO doc. “I’ll prescribe everything I can think of, and hopefully I’ll get paid from something”

But, since I don’t have my research an’ all, I couldn’t really decide what I could skip, so I paid the 260 (I’m sorry, 240, I declined the wash. Three times) and got the meds. They tossed out during payment that apparently they gave him like 3 shots for the ear infection, too, arleady, bringing up the price.

But 60 to 260, and no one thought to say a gods damned thing? 100$ in meds, 100$ in meds they gave him without asking??? I’m trying to decide if I’m pissed enough to go back tomorrow, or just accept it since I do want K to get better and if they’d asked I probably would have granted the permissions. But approving a 40$ test does not automajikally approve the next 100$ worth of crap you feel like doing.

And WTF didn’t anyone explain WHAT they did? I’m reading the billing invoice, and it’s not exactly laymans terms. It’s a freakin’ BILLING INVOICE. The nifty directions for the meds, a full page, say “use as directed by the doctor”, but with a lot more words. Hello? Isn’t that what this page should include? Direction by the doctor???? Especially since I only talked to the vet b/c I was bitching about the 200$ in meds???

*sigh*

Posted in: k-line by attriel /