I just had the weirdest experience ever...
I had seen Dr. Ashley a couple of years ago twice, as my mother was a patient and recommended her. She prescribed me an anti-depressant. I couldn't afford to continue treatment, because the sessions were expensive without insurance.
I have amazing insurance now, so I thought I'd give Dr Ashley another try. She recommended we meet every week. Then, I was on vacation, then she was on vacation. I was preparing to meet with her after not having seen her in ~4 weeks. I received a call from her assistant(?) asking we reschedule, without an explanation. Ok, fine. She followed up a couple of days later and suggested a date to meet. Here's where it got weird...
I took the day off to go to a dr checkup and planned to meet her during lunch. I left my house an hour early, enough time to travel to the Loop and arrive on time (Dr Ashley mentioned she appreciated my punctuality). I arrived EXACTLY on time, 12:30pm as we agreed. I knock, loudly, per usual. I waited outside in the hall... I tried knocking again. I heard her talking inside her apartment, but I could not determine whether she was on the phone or not. Then I started doubting myself; did I mistake the time and/or date of our appointment? When I knocked that second time, I heard her speak loudly, as if she had heard my knock and wanted me to know she was with someone. I was standing in the hallway, looking like a fool, knocking on a door with her dr name plate. Her neighbor walked past me, and I just felt embarrassed.
I just felt so strange after that experience. She made me second-guess myself. I went to Starbucks to hang out, thinking she may call me if she had been with someone and I was interrupting their session. I received her call 30min later, around 1pm, asking where I was. What??? I had knocked... Twice! I heard her talking! She sounded defensive, as she would have heard me if I had knocked. Ok, fine, it's a misunderstanding. I shook it off and trotted back to her office. Of course, not without having to pass the doorman for the 3rd time and running into her neighbor again!
I knocked unnecessarily loudly when I retuned, and we briefly discussed the misunderstanding. She still try to convince herself I never knocked. I told her it sounded as if she were with someone, or on the phone. FINALLY she admitted she had been on the phone (why would you answer the phone when you're expecting your patient?), but still tried to convince me she heard a knocking ~12:40 and look out her door, but no one was there. I thought I could disregard this whoooole experience as a misunderstanding. She had always been friendly and trustworthy prior to this meeting.
Then, another misunderstanding occurred. She was unavailable to see me until 3 weeks after our meeting, so we agreed on a date (which I had always promptly keyed into my calendar. Since I had to travel 15min during my lunch break to visit her, my schedule was tight and I needed to be very organized and careful about planning our meetings).
I received a strange call the next week from her- when I listened to the voicemail, she claimed I must have missed her session, because she was waiting for me earlier. Ok, she is an older lady, and I understand she could have made a mistake (we're human). Plus, she hand-wrote her appointments (so who was her assistant who called me to reschedule the one time?), and I kept meticulous notes of my appointments on my iPhone. I prompted returned her call, and reminded her that we agreed on the week after. I could only assume she flipped the page, saw my name on the date I claimed our appointment was set, and apologized to me. It was her mistake. That's ok! See you at our next appointment! (I'm a patient person I guess...)
My work week was very hectic, and I made the first mistake in our "business relationship." I completely forgot about our appointment! Oh. My. God. How embarrassing! I realized this on Thursday, the day after we were scheduled to meet. AS SOON AS I REALIZED I MISSED OUR APPT, I CALLED HER. I left her a message, actually profusely apologizing for missing. I asked her to return my call so we can reschedule. It was my first mistake, and I had a good track record, right?
WRONG! I came home the next day after I called her to a hand-written note in my mailbox. She wrote it the day I missed the appointment, which is the day before I called her. How embarrassing that I called and profusely apologized, but she had made up her mind about me:
In essence, she began by mentioning her appt mixups, but not as her mistake. She, of course, called me out on my mistake. She thought I didn't come because I no longer needed her services. I, more than ever, depended on talking to someone, and she obviously did not care about me as a patient to think of me so low as to not call and explain my absence.
"I think we should call ourselves done for now." I would have never thought I would experience such a traumatic experience!!! read more