It's Weird

The swelling has gone down in Chris' wrist enough just in time for a permanent cast before he leaves to Spain Study Abroad on Sunday.   

He was choosing between a regular cast and a waterproof cast

but then was offered up a third option -- a brace that can get wet and Chris could take off to clean if he needs to. He'll have to be super disciplined to leave it on so the bone doesn't move.

It's a 50/50 chance it will heal on its own without surgery. Fingers crossed. 

He chose the brace and is so relieved its so unobtrusive.

It was pretty cool to see how they could make it from a flat piece of thick plastic,

heated in 160* water and molded to fit his arm.

Lots of color choices!

Funny/annoying doctor culture story.

When we arrived at PT where they were making the brace

the front desk lady was bugged because we hadn't called ahead to check in

even though no one told us we needed to.

Then the PT assistant who was doing a second check-in was disappointed in us because we didn't bring the "prescription and how would the PT know how to make the brace without the doctor's notes."

We said we'd gone to the walk-in clinic with Dr. Belnap 

and he made the appointment for us just this morning. 

She was very adamant that we understand we were not doing things according to their system,

until she finally said, "Maybe he sent it digitally, but we don't have any doctors here by that name."

I seriously think between the front desk person and her they were convinced we were trying to sneak our way in to get a brace and cheat the appointment scheduling system.

She hemmed and hawed shaking her head in disbelief until I finally said, 

"What's the normal protocol when someone is referred from the other side of the building? 

Do they have a paper prescription or is it sent digitally?"

We just don't have any Dr. Belnap, was her reply.

She bustled around finally airing her frustrations in a corner to the PT

 (who was actually very nice, but I was beginning to wonder 

if TOSH was good as it used to be because of all the weird staff),

and finally she came back all smiles. 

"Oh! You said Doctor Belnap. That's why I didn't recognize him. 

He's not a doctor! He's a physician's assistant and is just called Corey. I don't know his last name."

So here's the deal: I honestly can't keep straight all the medical field's titles. 

I'm 51 years old and just now getting down the difference between a doctor, a PA, an NP, a PT,

not to mention all the various nursing titles and other types of physicians.

I have no idea what to call my Nurse Practitioner. 

Is she Dr. Warner? Rachelle? Ms. Warner? Rachelle Warner, NP?

I assumed the Physical Therapist making Chris' brace was a Physical Therapist, 

but on his notes it says Jared Dunn, MD. So is he actually a doctor?

To simplify, I'm just going to call everyone "doctor" and expect the staff to know who the heck I'm referring to.

In the business world no one says, "May I speak to CEO Shaeffer?" That would be weird.

And if you have someone in your office you work with, you generally know their first and last names.

In the end, I think the only people keeping such close track of all these titles being used correctly,

 is the physician community. Relax folks. We know you went to a lot of school. 

We're grateful for you. That's why we err on the side of calling everyone "doctor" --

we make sure to get the "important ones" right and the "lesser ones" 

(in terms of years of school) a promotion.

And no one regrets receiving a promotion. Quite frankly, if everyone they work with is always clarifying, 

"they're NOT a doctor!" it sounds like they could use it.