Friday, 12 October 2007

Wait

While being pregnant has brought us a lot of joy and excitement, it has its downside too.

Recently I discovered that I really dislike going to the Gynae. It is not due to Dr N of course as he is really a very caring and nice Gynae. The dislike that I am referring to here is the waiting.

I’m sure most of you will agree that a typical visit to your friendly neighbour Gynae will take about 2 – 3 hours easy right? Depending on the popularity of your Gynae, this waiting time can be much longer.

Our appointment is normally at 4.30pm but we will usually find ourselves still in the clinic by about 7.30pm. This is also the reason why we have chosen to pick the time slot that is as late as possible. Those of you who have been reading this blog since day 1 will know that the Mrs works very close to Dr N’s clinic so what she usually does is to go over and register at 4.30pm and then go back to her office. She has established this rapport with the staffs so they will call her when it is soon to be her turn.

This is all good for the Mrs but to me it makes little difference. To get from my office to the clinic is at least half an hour if I am lucky enough to find a parking lot fast so I cannot wait till they call the Mrs before heading over. I try to make it a point to be there every time she visits Dr N so I will have to leave earlier and make sure I am there when it is her turn.

Initially I was there at about 5pm when appointment was at 4.30pm but this has been pushed back little by little with each visit. During our last visit this week I was there at 6pm but we still finished at about 7.30pm. At least this time the waiting has been cut down to about 1.5 hours only. Since the Mrs was back in her office working, I will be there alone most of the time.

I find sitting there and not doing anything a really waste of time. As it is I am already busy to the extent that my routine car servicing has been delayed by almost 3 months now yet I still am unable to find the time to drop the car off. This is also partly due to the fact that I move around a lot hence I do require the car.

Normally I will bring along some reading materials like books and newspapers but very quickly these will be exhausted.

Recently I have resorted to bringing my laptop along so I can work on this blog. Unfortunately the clinic does not have WIFI otherwise I can do a lot more. So now I have to be contented with just writing my next post using Word and then upload it later once I’m home.

Noticing that they still have new patients (first-timers) walking in at 7.30pm during our last visit, I have decided to push our luck a little more the next time. I am targeting to go in only at about 7pm after having our dinner even though our appointment is again at 4.30pm. In most cases the clinic does not close anytime before 7.30pm anyway.

Come to think of it this is the same mind set I have whenever I bring Ah No to the family Vet. Yes, we have a family Vet and her initial is also 'N' coincidentally. Dr N, the Vet has been tending to our dogs since many years back. When we were younger and all living under one roof we used to have this fox terrier, ‘Russell the rascal’ as we affectionately called him. After my sis and I moved out, my dad and mum kept him until he passed away about 2 years back at the age of 12.

Now my sis has 2 cocker spaniels and I have Ah No of course and we still go back to Dr N for the yearly vaccination and check up.

So, whenever I had to make an appointment for Ah No, it will always be the very last one for the day. So it was usually either 7 or 7.30pm. I like being the last one because knowing very well that everyone wants to knock off on time we were normally made to wait for only a rather short while even if we arrived about half an hour earlier for Ah No’s appointment . This is compared to between 1 – 2 hours if my appointment is for any other time of the day.

I guess part of the reason why I dislike waiting at clinics is also due to the fact that the time we spent in the room for the consultation does not quite justify the waiting time. Imagine we wait for 3 hours and we are usually done in about 15 minutes or less.

Any of you also ever noticed that for some strange reasons the people before you will usually take longer than you? Take going to the GP for example. The waiting time can be an hour with most patients going in before you taking rather long. Some can take up to 20 mins and when it is your turn, that lousy 5 mins.

In order to justify the waiting time I have resorted to .................... no, I did not intentionally spend longer time in the room with the Doctor consulting him on symptoms and conditions that my colleagues and neighbours are having. Although the thought did cross my mind. Ha Ha

There is this beef noodle stall in East Coast Park hawker centre that we rather like. Before the renovation the queue there is typically half an hour easy. So in the past whenever we were there I will buy 3 or maybe 4 bowls of noodles for the 2 of us to justify the long wait. Hee Hee

For your information I will never queue 4 hours just to buy donuts. I believe no food is worth that kind of wait. Anyway we managed to eat their donuts by waiting in line for only 5 mins at the new Suntec City outlet. It is actually rather good. Maybe worth half hour wait by my book.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

*grin* Yeap, I'm always a five-minute consultation person, but everyone else seems to take longer!

After a few monthly visits to the gynae, we started to feel like they were pretty pointless unless you wanted to collect ultrasound pics, which in our case, we never ever got good shots!

If I had to do it over I would schedule visits every two months instead, and up it to the recommended weekly visits in the third trimester.

Nicole said...

Like you, I super hate the waiting time. So in order not to wait, I took the FIRST slot in the morning, just to make sure that I don't have to wait long BUT still, somehow, even though I'm supposed to be no. 1 in queue, someone will go in first before me. Due to ' emergency', the assistants will say.

Anyway, I'm also a 5 mins consultation person. Wait for few hours, then 5 mins and the gynae chased you out. That's really heartwarming. Haha!

Anonymous said...

I hv similar experiences for both of my pregnancies (diff gynaes). I think it's a norm in S'pore - esp so when seeing a specialist. For my kids' case - not even i hv to wait ard 2 hrs to see the PD (with prior appt); the booking of appt can be quite tough in the 1st place.

Lionel n Rachel said...

yup yup, i too, hate the waiting time just to see my gynae. i totally agree with u - we can wait min. 2-3 hrs just to see him/her, then only spent that lousy 5mins inside and....done. finish. period.

sucks!

dat was during my 1st pregnancy & also my first gynae visit. & happen to be my last gynae visit in that clinic.

i chose KK for the subsequent visits & so far the waiting time was smooth- max 1hr nia compare to the previous one. but same la, everything check & finish within 5 mins. haha

but maybe u can tink this way; so long as mrs & bb is well, the wait is worth. cheers.

Trina said...

glad that my appts with my gynae was usually punctual. I think she deliberately do not schedule appts back-to-back so I usually see her on appointed times. Since she sees fewer patients, I think she made up for "loss of revenue" by charging more than most of my frens' gynaes. Though I was v comfortable and have absolutely no complaints abt her, I was a bit heartpain when paying up the fees. :p

Aces Family said...

Yeah, i agreed that the donuts are not Q-ing hours for them.Unless ur Mrs starts to have craving for them.. : )

So far, we are pretty lucky, 2 times at the Raffles City outlet, we got them in abt 10 - 15 minutes.

cheers,
astee

A Husband's Voice said...

Hi evelyn,

Argghh!!! We're in our 3rd Trimester now so does this mean I have to play this waiting game on a weekly basis?!?!

Hopefully not cause our next scheduled meeting with Dr N is first week on November. This is about a month after our last visit.

I understand the frequency of the visits will increase as we get nearer to the EDD. I guess this means I will have more time to prepare more posts for this blog.

A Husband's Voice said...

Hi nicole,

I know what you mean. For some reason, although we are supposed to be the 1st appointment but very seldom we are the 1st ones to see the Dr.

Thankfully Dr N doesn't chase us out but the Mrs herself is usually the one rushing out.

Being considerate she does not want to take up anymore of the Dr's time so that others waiting can see him earlier.

A Husband's Voice said...

Hi nana,

I'm not sure if this is truly a Singapore thing but it seems majority of us are made to wait even though we have made prior appointments.

I have always been complaining about this but the Mrs educated me that actually for specialists, the time indicated for our appointments does not equals to the time that the Dr will be seeing us.

In fact it is the time that we are expected to be there for our registrations and in some other cases, start some other procedures so that by the time the Dr sees us, he will have the necessary findings and reports.

A Husband's Voice said...

Hi yvonne,

Really? The waiting time in KK is only about an hour? That is good.

Deep down I know I cannot complain at all and it is not because the Mrs and Baby are healthy but we get an unbelievable discount from Dr N.

As I had mentioned before, Dr N is a personal friend of the Mrs's boss so on his account, Dr N gave us excellent discounts.

I am very grateful because we can put these savings to good use with other babies essentials.

A Husband's Voice said...

Hi trina,

Well, guess we can look at the extras that you pay as payments to avoid waiting.

At the end of the day the only thing that matters is if you are comfortable with her and if you have confidence in her.

I also learnt that another important thing when it comes to choosing your Gynae is their flexibility to work with you on your birth plan. If they are not supportive then you will not be able to have the kind of birth that you want.

Anyway, I'm deviating away from the topic. I will touch on birth plan in probably my next post.

Stay tuned! Hee Hee

A Husband's Voice said...

Hi astee,

Thankfully the Mrs does not have bad cravings that require me to drive out late nights to buy them for her.

Then again maybe those cravings were actually that bad it's just that she doesn't want to trouble me. Ain't I the lucky one?!

Speaking of luck, we have been lucky with the donuts so far too. Went to the Suntec branch again yesterday and the queue was only 10 mins.

Anonymous said...

yeap yeap, weekly visits are usually recommended at the tail end of the third trimester if the pregnancy is smooth. :o)

hope you will still have time to update your blog once baby arrives!

A Husband's Voice said...

Hi evelyn,

Ok, that's a relief cause we will only be reaching 28 weeks tomorrow which means we still have some time before we have to go for weekly visits. Phew!

I will surely continue to update this blog after Baby's arrival. In fact I suspect there will be more things for me to blog about.

Being 1st time parents there are still much to learn and share.

I only wish you all will continue to read this blog. Then again most of the readers would have been upgraded from MTB to Mothers so the material will still be relevant.