Back to my Wednesday doctor’s appointment.  Consider this a refocused addition to Fibromyalgia and your Doctor’s Customer Service, Part 1…

I always seem to be pondering an issue, product, or theory and I often think of questions I’d like to ask my doctor (or chiropractor).  I trust their opinions above any other medical field worker I’ve met (and I, like you, have met a small army of them), so on the way to my appointments I always make a mental note of my discussion topics (a habit my mom helped me develop to get the most out of the dozens of appointments we went through trying to get a diagnosis). Despite these efforts, if I go to an appointment alone, I neglect to remember my questions upon entering the exam room.

So, there I sat in Dr. Arkins exam room, all excited about the form and how it prompted me for additional questions.  And in all the excitement I chased off all memories of questions.  Awful timing.  A few trigger memories finally led me to remember a few questions and I jotted them down.

After handing the paper back to the nurse I felt a bit self-conscious.  My questions were extremely varied and had exactly nothing to do with the purpose of my appointment.  I mean, seriously.  I will spare you the uninteresting details (which I’d have to make up) and get to the one I know you’re all interested in.  I simply wrote “mattress.”  Yep.  Not even a question.  Just a one word reminder for when the doctor came in.  And when Dr. Arkins came in armed with the questionnaire and my file he was ready to discuss everything I’d written down.  Even the oneword “question.”

He asked if I was looking into a new mattress.  I said something along the lines of “Well, more like dreaming about one.  But I am curious if you think it’s worth saving up for a memory foam mattress.”  This led to a very rapid discussion in which he expressed disbelief that I didn’t already have a non-spring matress, offered to write a letter prescribing a memoryfoam or Tempur-Pedic mattress, and wrote said letter.  All in less than five minutes.  He then explained that, even if insurance won’t cover it, I could and should use my HSA.  And, he added, since it was December 31st I best get on the ball so I could meet my deductible before the new year.

Wow.  I walked out of the office feeling giddy.  I hadn’t asked for the letter.  Nor had I expected one.  And I certainly had not considered that by sundown I would own the Rhapsody Bed by Tempur-Pedic…