Finally...the M R I

04-26-13

I was at work this morning and decided to call the radiology center in the off chance they had an earlier opening for an MRI.  I really didn't want to have to wait until next Wednesday.  Especially because I was crossing my fingers that I would be able to squeeze into the new surgeon's schedule by that time too.  A lovely woman named Shirley answered the phone.  No openings as of yet but she sweetly offered to take my name and call me if one did become available.

Within 30 minutes she called me and asked me if I could be there by 12:15 for a 12:30 appointment today.  I felt the pressure of asking to leave work, so I had to ponder this more a minute.  I don't like that I feel this way.  I should be jumping on the chance to take care of this...so I decide to take the appointment.

I ask the doctor that I work for (dentist) if he minds if I leave in order to go get the MRI done.  He says sure.  I call my manager to inform her of the chance for me to go get it done and request to leave as a formailty for her sake.  She responds with a reluctant, "uh, well, it's not like I can say no."  In my head I'm thinking you inconsiderate "B."  But I keep my cool and say thank you, I understand it's last minute but I need to get this taken care of as soon as possible.  And if it mattered at all, we only had one more patient for the rest of the day and he could take care it with his assistant...I'm just the front desk person.  I prepare everything to run smoothly and as efficiently as possible for the rest of the day while I'm gone so the office is minimally impacted by my absence.  A short while later I get a lovely email from my manager (who by the way is never even in the office - she works remote).  The email had a subject line :  Thought... and it read something like, I'm confused.  Why did you call me to ask if you could leave if you had already asked the doctor if you could go and he said yes?  Please send me an email officially requesting the time off.

So I sent her the email she wanted.  Which is so rediculous because I work for an hourly wage, have no health benefits, don't even get a discount for dental work, am not given paid time off for sick, or vacation.  And in the year that I have worked there, I have had to take multiple days off so that the doctor can go to his conferences and anything else he wants and I am not paid for those lost hours or days.  I have called in sick one time for a horrible cold that lasted 4 weeks.  And while home that one day I was harrassed to no end via  text messaging from the office manager who told me in no uncertain terms that the doctor expected me at work the next day.

I can hardly believe I'm getting this pushback and being made to feel like I am inconveniencing them when they know exactly what is going on with me. It feels so insenstive and thoughtless.  But I am relieved when I walk out of the office and happy that I made the choice to take care of myself.  I matter more right now.