Why Hasn't The Doctor Called Me Back Yet!?!?

My father was dying of brain cancer. He had a glioblastoma removed from his left prefrontal cortex and was given months to live. He was a physicist and his intellectual capabilities were unimpaired but his judgment and social graces, such as they were, had been annihilated. Told by the surgeon that they removed the tumour using suction my father delighted in pointing to the large scar on his forehead and loudly telling strangers that his brain had been removed by a vacuum cleaner. There were other surprising moments of levity, but otherwise this was a bleak time. He was too young for this and we were not ready to lose him. Not nearly.

A few weeks after the surgery an issue arose regarding one of his medications. I don't recall which or why, but I do recall being quite anxious about it. It was not an emergency by any stretch, but the problem was beginning to spiral in our minds, so I phoned his oncologist to ask about it. He was unable to come to the phone, so his receptionist took a message. Ten minutes went by, then twenty, thirty, forty, fifty... By the time a full hour rolled around I had checked twice to make sure the phone was working (dial tone? yes) and my pacing had become obsessive. I couldn't read. I couldn't listen to music. I couldn't concentrate on chores. I couldn't think about anything except a recursive loop of 'Why hasn't he called me back yet!?!?'
'Why?!?!?'
'It would only take a minute!'
At the two hour mark my tone had darkened . I was much quicker to anger in those days.
'I can't effing believe this! He can't find a minute to help a dying man?'
'The arrogant prick!!'
I was beside myself. I left another message, trying to make my voice sound like cold steel, gleaming with sarcastic fury.
But at least another hour passed before he called. When he did his tone was disarmingly pleasant and empathetic. He took the time needed to properly answer my questions and the problem was sorted.

All these many years later I still cringe when I think of how I reacted that day. I cringe in part in recognition of the different person I was then and I cringe in part in imagining how my own clients must sometimes feel when I am slow returning their calls. I know that most people are reasonable and understanding, but I know that some must be just like I was - in a vulnerable and slightly irrational emotional state or perhaps even just unaware of the workflow in a busy clinical setting.

So for the latter group, it is probably worthwhile explaining the "type of busy" that we often are. In some jobs you can be very busy doing one thing. You have a single important task in front of you that is fully occupying your time, but you can take regular breaks from it to quickly address other matters as they arise. Veterinary (and presumably human medical) practice is not like that. We generally have numerous simultaneous demands on our attention throughout our entire shift. We are constantly in triage mode, figuring out in what order to do things so that the least number of people with urgent problems are left waiting the least amount of time. Moreover, for telephone messages specifically, in some cases it may be a few hours before we even see the message, let alone try to fit it into our triage. Another factor is that estimating the length of a phone call is notoriously difficult, for either the client or the doctor, so we are sometimes unwilling to take the risk and will leave it until a gap opens in our schedule or to the end of our shift. This is almost certainly what happened with my father's oncologist. It was closer to ten minutes than one and he was wise enough to leave it for the end of his day.

So, "How To Contact Your Veterinarian":
- By all means please phone if you have any questions.
- If you feel the question is urgent, tell the receptionist so.
- Ask for a realistic guesstimate on when you are likely to hear back.
- Please make sure the receptionist knows which phone number you can be reached at. Many files list multiple work and cell numbers for multiple family members in addition to the home landline.
- Please make sure you specify if there are times you will not be available to be called back.
- Please use email sparingly and only if you are ok with waiting for a day or two for a response. Sometimes we're quick with email, but sometimes we're not. For a variety of practical reasons it is not given a high priority.

(my dad and my brother, ~1970)