Posted by emmanuel98 on October 30, 2011, at 18:32:40
Well, traffic has been slow here, so I will tell you the latest upset with my p-doc. I had an appointment at 4:00 on Thursday (I see him every other week now) and it was pouring rain and my umbrella broke. When I got to his office, which is on the ground floor, I could see that his lights were off. I was a bit early, so I rang his bell -- no answer -- then waited under the awning outside his building. Some women came by and rang another office and I followed them inside and waited in the lobby. I was about to call his cellphone (he is never late and has never cancelled an appointment without notice and I've been seeing him for 6-1/2 years), when I saw him walking toward the building with jeans on. He never wears jeans when he is working.
He came in the lobby, saw me and said "i'm not here to see you now." I was stunned for a minute and said but we have an appointment. He started to open his waiting room door and said, "it's been a crazy week. I lost my appointment book. I need to meet with someone now who is going to paint the office. I'll call you later." Then he went into his office.
I felt like he had kicked me in the stomach. He acted like I had no right to be there and the last person on earth he wanted to see was me.
That night he called and said, I am terribly sorry. I finally found my book. This has only happened once before in the 40 years I've been in practice. Then we made an appointment for Monday morning. But I still feel unsettled. I felt like he was saying he was sorry for forgetting our appointment, but not for the way he acted when he saw me.
So I have to bring this up tomorrow and I know it will be hard for me. I felt, after this happened, that he doesn't give a s**t about me in reality.
I told my husband about this and he said, don't take it personally. He's old (72), forgot your appointment because he lost his book and was frazzled and in a bad mood. I'm trying to tell myself that's all it was. I caught him in a bad mood and he was rude and handled the whole situation thoughtlessly. He once told me that he is not that nice a person, that he can be hurtful and anger easily. Maybe I was seeing that side of him, which he rarely show in session.
Hopefully we will talk this out tomorrow and I will feel better about the whole thing.
poster:emmanuel98
thread:1001234
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20111017/msgs/1001234.html