health- personal.

My mom and I have this tradition to do a girl's shopping weekend every year with her good friend and her daughter (my good friend, Emily). The summer after Emily and I's sophomore year, we were lucky enough to be able to persuade our moms to take us to New York City to go shopping. Throughout the entire weekend, my left wrist was really bothering me. I kept complaining about it throughout the weekend, but everyone just joked it was probably from carrying all the shopping bags. 

When we returned home after our lovely weekend of shopping, I continued to complain about how much my left wrist hurt. My mom said we would continue to keep and eye on it throughout the upcoming week. Well, by the middle of the week I was stuck on the couch watching television because my wrist hurt so badly that I could not move it. Finally, my mom decided it was time to take me to the walk-in clinic to get it looked at. At the walk-in clinic, the doctor took x-rays to see if I had broken anything. When the x-rays came back with no broken bones, the doctor continued to look at my wrist. By the time she got done playing with my wrist, I was bitting my lip and fighting back tears. When the doctor left the room to go check on something, my mom quickly called my pediatrician to get me an appointment. My mom told her what was going on and she said to come over immediately after we got done at the walk-in clinic. 

After the doctor at the walk-in clinic told me to go home take some motrin and put some ice on it, we rushed over to my pediatrician's office. There, my doctor told me to go to the hospital to get some blood work done and to have it looked at it. I ended up spending three days in the hospital with cellulitis, or a virus within my cells. I was later told at the hospital that if I would have gone home like the first doctor told me to, I may have lost my hand and wrist to amputation. 

Completely frustrated by the care we received at the walk-in clinic, my mom wrote them a letter complaining about our doctor and her neglect. She complained about her rude bed-side manner and her diagnosis. She told them how I was clearly in pain when she was examining me and how she continued to turn my wrist in every single way, creating more pain. This is a perfect example of horrible health communication. It is the doctor's responsibility to have good bed-side manners in order to help the patient efficiently and effectively.