Dentists and Doctors

Our vacations are over and we are back to the reality of spring [cross that out] winter in Northeast Montana. We only came back because we had dental appointments which had been set a year ago. (That and the whole running out of money thing.)

People are always surprised when we say we go to Plentywood for our dental care. We go there out of loyalty to a dentist who had sympathy and who understood what it is to be in pain.

Early in our marriage, we went to Dr. Martens in Glasgow. When he retired, he didn’t sell his practice but instead closed his doors.

Being the great procrastinators we are, we hadn’t yet gotten around to taking our business to another local dentist. So when my husband developed severe pain in a tooth, we started phoning the local dentists for help.

The first one we called in Glasgow offered an appointment in six weeks. The other dentist in town said his first opening was in a month. So Dennis took more over-the-counter painkillers and suffered through the night.

The next day the pain was worse and the side of his face was swelling. Out came the phone book, and the dentist in Wolf Point was called. (I’d taken our daughters there for retainers and braces.) That office, under new management, wasn’t accepting new patients. Scobey’s dental office said they could see him in three weeks. So, back to the ibuprofen and aspirin.

The next day Dennis was in agony, and becoming feverish. So we called the dental clinic in Plentywood, even though it’s 104 miles one-way from our home. This was on a Friday, which was that dentist’s day off. The receptionist gave us his home phone number, so yet another call was made. There was no answer, so Dennis called the office again. He was told to leave a message, and that the dentist would call back.

Wonder of wonders, Dr. Lidahl did phone in a short amount of time. He asked how soon could Dennis be there? This dentist came in on his day off to care for my husband. His comment was that every dentist should experience a bad toothache once and their attitudes would change.

We’ve been driving to Plentywood at least once a year to that dental clinic ever since, even after Dr. Lidahl retired. (His clinic even offered up the name of a dentist for our daughter to see when she was attending college in the Moorhead, Minn., area many years ago.)

As a side note, Dennis didn’t make it to his appointment, but instead drove himself to the Clinic in Glasgow. He’d caught the head cold I brought home from our grandsons in Florida. The flights to and from Arizona intensified it and he now has pneumonia. It’s always fun to be sick, is it not?

We’ve learned over the years to drag our ill selves the 36 miles to the Clinic, arriving early in the day. So far, they’ve always managed to work us in by noon. If you phone first, explaining that you’re really sick, invariably the receptionist will ask if you have an appointment. I’ve always wanted to respond that we have a standing appointment at 9:30 a.m. every Wednesday just in case someone in our home would be sick that week. (How dumb is that question?)

This fall, when I showed up on Friday morning as the clinic opened at 8:30, obviously ill, with a horrible barking cough, I was told they’d be able to see me at 11:45. My response was that since I live 36 miles from town I wasn’t driving home to return in three hours, so I’d be content to sit in the waiting area, coughing my horrible germs on every person who came in for the next three hours. Magically, they found a much earlier time to see me. (I was diagnosed with pneumonia, and had been contagious.)

It’s quite clear to me that Glasgow really needs an urgent care or walk-in clinic. The emergency room costs are outrageous. Towards the end of my bout of pneumonia, I became dehydrated in spite of the copious amounts of water I was downing. I thought I was having a heart attack. Of course, this happened on a Saturday. A phone call to the ER nurse describing my symptoms elicited the response that I’d better be brought in to be checked. The ER care I received was excellent, but came with a huge cost. We’ll be paying on that bill for the next two years. A walk-in clinic could have saved us a lot of money.

So for now, my advice is to plan your illnesses for weekdays only, and be sure to have your standing appointment set. (Call to cancel if it appears you won’t actually need to be seen.)