Doctor visit protocol

amother

Mon, May 27 2019, 11:24 pm

Forgive me for the long post but I’m curious to hear opinions...
I have a dermatologist I use for skin checks. In between checks by her I saw a mole and I was thinking I wanted her to look at it but I wouldn’t be by her for a while.
I was having a facial at a different dermatologist - one I visit for cosmetic things like facials. My appt with this dr was on a Monday and she has a 24 hour cancellation policy. I got a sinus infection on Shabbos and started antibiotics on Sunday and wasn’t feeling well Monday morning so I called her office to cancel. They told me if I cancel I have to pay for the services anyway. The receptionist said she would call the dr to ask her and get back to me. She emailed me and said either I come for my appt, move the appt time to a little later in the day or cancel and have to pay. So since I was forced to go I said I would show her the mole. Was I terribly annoyed? No...I would have rather stay in bed but I was ok. Just very coldy.
She saw the mole and wanted to remove it so I did that. And then the area of the removal got so infected I kept sending her pics by email and she said it was ok - but it was quite bad. She said it’s besg to try not to take more oral antibiotics if we can avoid it which is true. It eventually healed. But the pathology report said while it’s ok, it has some atypical cells so to be safe, remove the borders of the area and that requires a stitch or two.
She told me next time I come to see her she would do it. She said it will take 5 minutes. So I set up an appt to do a facial again and told the receptionist I would do the extra removal then too. But when I got there I decided to hold off on the leg. I’m nervous bc of how bad I reacted and also I just had a lot going on and didn’t feel it was a good week to do it. The dr spoke to me and said it was ok to wait but we have to do it one day. When I went to pay it was a very expensive visit and I wasn’t expecting that: I said to receptionist I know what I have always paid for the facial why is it almost 300 dollars more? She said “for her time” meaning bc I was supposed to do the removal and didn’t I was paying for the time. I was like shaking I was so upset. I said if that was the case I would have just done it...I wasn’t told I would be paying for not doing it today. She couldn’t reach the dr who just left for a luncheon so she had me leave my cc number and said she would see later what the dr says. In the end they didn’t charge for the “time” and the bill was adjusted to just the correct amount for the service.
Now was I wrong at all anywhere here...would you show back up at the dr this week and do the removal or would you feel embarrassed if you were me. Thanks.

amother

Mon, May 27 2019, 11:33 pm

Thanks. So go back to her as usual?
I hope she will treat me ok I’m sure she was a little annoyed by it all.
I have to say I feel awful when I need to cancel something last minute. This past week I had to cancel 2 things bc my son was sick but both tho ha were so gracious and nice about it...I felt so bad but they said it was totally ok. I had a legitimate reason of course but still I hate to take someone’s time and not be able to make it - both appts I had to miss are rescheduled.
One was a Monday morning so there was that same issue of not being able to cancel when something happened on the weekend.
The second I ended up needing to take my son to the er middle of the night so my appt the next day I couldn’t make bc I had to be with my son. I’m not a serial canceller