I checked the time again. 3:27. My impatience had started to turn to anger. Part of the reason I had switched endos was to avoid excessive waits like this. I got up and went to the desk. “Hi, I’m just wondering how much longer you think the wait might be.” The woman made a phone call. “They’re about to call you back any minute.”

Sure enough I soon found myself seated in the exam room. The nurse took my blood pressure and my height and weight, but nothing else. I sat in the chair and waited. And waited. And waited.

When I first arrived at the appointment, I was excited. I was eager for a new doctor, for one that would see me as a person and a patient. Who would listen and help me. Who would take more than a couple minutes to really understand me. I had high hopes for this appointment. But as I sat in that chair, that hope was diminishing minute by minute. 3:47. I started ranting angrily in my head.

I stood up, too fueled with anger to sit any longer. I paced the room as the time approached 3:56. The doctor came in. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.” I shook her hand but didn’t reply. She should be sorry. My earlier excitement had turned to bitterness. I sat down, my arms crossed, already defensive. This isn’t how I wanted this visit to go.

But then the doctor started talking.

She started asking all the right questions. She asked about my history, about my numbers, about my obstacles. She asked about my habits, my patterns, my journey. She asked me what I wanted to work on. She asked me what my goals were. And she listened. She took notes, she analyzed, she discussed. She took my CGM and downloaded the numbers, pinpointing right away areas that we could work on, some today and some over time. As she filled out my medical record, she read her notes out loud. They were so thorough and detailed. She made sure that we talked about everything I wanted to and made sure we had a plan to follow up. When we were all done, she looked at me and said, “Welcome to this practice, we’ll take good care of you. Your goals are our goals and we’ll work together to meet them.”

It was everything I hoped the visit would be. She was everything I had hoped my doctor would be. It was night and day between this doctor and the one I’ve had the past 8 years. It even made that hour wait worth it. Besides the wait, I wasn’t thrilled about the fact that I have to go to separate lab for my A1c test or that she couldn’t download the information from my pump just my CGM. But regardless, I still consider the visit a great success.

It wasn’t easy to leave my other doctor and practice. It’s hard to leave comfort and familiarity behind. But sometimes we don’t know what better things await us if we never take the risk.