the truth can now be told

I didn't want to post the following at the time and didn't want to name names, as I didn't want to compromise my welcome at ASG for Mr. Buster's sake, in case he needed emergency care. For the most part, ASG is a terrific specialty clinic. Clinically they are superior. Buster's surgeon, Dr. Kirk Wendelburg was a dream. Buster had absolutely no post-op problems at all and healed beautifully. And the doctor wasn't afraid to give me his opinion in no uncertain terms, which I appreciated. I had absolute confidence in him.

But sometimes you can't work with certain personalities. Such was the case with the oncologist there, "Dr." Blake, who was arrogant and insufferable.

Coincidently (?) there were two other doctors there with the same attitude and they also happened to be women...which leads me to believe that maybe in their field they had to be aggressive in order to compete with the men or maybe they just think they are better than the clients that give them their livelihood in the first place. Maybe they didn't like to be questioned because they either weren't sure of themselves or felt threatened because they thought I was questioning them, instead of realizing I was just getting information. Maybe it was me, not acquiescing to their authority to rush me through. Someone once told me they thought vets became vets as they could relate to animals better than people, but the joke is on them because, they have to interact with owners after all. Either way, it was all very unpleasant.

Anyway, either they don't care or don't realize that clients talk about them, that there is an online, word-of-mouth community that discusses their experiences with veterinarians in no uncertain terms. Blake told me I was the worse of her clients, that I asked too many questions, even though I made special appointments with her just for that reason instead of dealing with her assistants, for which she was getting paid. After 5 minutes talk she said she had to go and charged me $75 each time! (That comes to $900.- an hour). This happened twice. I was crushed, intimidated and enraged and felt so happy when I later found someone else, Dr.Sue Downing... I didn't give any explanation to Blake but just cancelled my appointments. I find out later that it all got around on the grapevine nonetheless, when Buster's records were sent for. I felt an quiet, vindictive joy in my black little heart.

It so happens that I was talking to another client in the waiting room who said Blake had told her the same thing! And yet another client who was put off by her. So it wasn't me. It was all I could do not to say anything to the owner of ASG (and excellent surgeon of my little boy), Dr. Wendelburg, for the above reasons. But I wrote a letter to them both to get it off my chest and just saved them for later, biding my time. It helps to write about it here too, even if it doesn't get read.

At this point though, several months later, I've gone through so much with my baby, that those feelings of rage at Blake are on the backburner, and though my anger is justified, the expression of it would make me feel bad and she isn't worth my time. What goes around, comes around and sometimes a quiet satisfaction is more delicious. (I'm not bitter...)

Kicking ass!