Vascular Doctor Visit

February 6th, 2020

This was my first official follow up since my condition was diagnosed . I was nervous going into the appointment mainly due to being unsure what was going to happen. My parents both were coming.

When I walked into the waiting room, everyone was above the age of 65 . I sat down in the corner of the room waiting to be called. I waited…. 1 hour later nothing… man good thing my phone came with full battery… waited another hour…. finally at the 2 hour mark ” Meghan Jackson”.

They take me back to a room with clouds on the ceiling.

They were going to perform another ultrasound on my right leg to see the progress on my leg. Due to the training that this tech had, they allowed him show me the screen while he was scanning my leg and could discuss the topic. Once the scan was complete, they put back in the waiting room for another 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, I got pulled back into an examination room. My nerves were really going and it was reflected in my vitals. In fact, my blood pressure was like you should be in the hospital levels. They decided to let me settle in before getting another reading. After 15 minutes, they took another reading and it went down to an ok level.

Finally, the moment has come where the doctor came in. He had a recorder in his hand the whole time. It gave me cover my ass kind of vibes. It was a pretty quick conversation. You are going to continue to be on blood thinner for 4 to 6 months and at the end of that then we will do a genetic test to make sure it wasn’t a clotting disorder. They really thought it was due to my birth control though.

Looking back, I wish had received treatment from a different doctor. There was not a lot of education of blood thinners or blood clots themselves. Lack of knowledge= lack of control=fear. I understand that these type of cases are common in the doctor’s world , but this was all new to me and I was scared. The lack of empathy from the doctor to recognize my emotions as human first before treatment was damaging between the patient doctor relationship. I had to keep reminding myself that doctors don’t actively try to hurt you.