By Irene Conlan -

Thursday on the radio show I interviewed a woman in Bath, England via Skype. How far we’ve come! I was in Scottsdale, Arizona, she was in England and the broadcasting company (VoiceAmerica) was in Phoenix.

It reminded me of the time in my childhood when we  lived in a small town in West Texas and had a crank telephone on a party line. Now that’s an experience in living! For those of you who have only had fancy cell phones or smart phones, a party line meant you shared the line with a number of other families and we could all listen in on each other’s conversations. If we wanted to call someone on the line, we simply cranked their ring – two longs and a short for example or a short, a long and a short – all kinds of combinations. If we wanted the operator because we needed someone not on our line or wanted to make a long distance call, we cranked the ring for the operator who had a switchboard in her home. If we were calling a  person in town and they didn’t answer, we could ask her if she knew where they were. Sometimes she did and sometimes she did not but it was always worth a try. Do I need to tell you that everyone in town knew everyone else’s business?

I remember a number of different phones as I was growing up. I loved this one because as a little girl I could wrap my small hand around it while I held the receiver to my ear. I felt big and important when I was allowed to use it. As a teen I had a baby blue princess phone in my own room – not my own line but my own phone. I was limited on the amount of time I could spend on it but I could hold private conversations about those things teen girls talk about – boys, boys, boys – without being heard by my parents.

I owned a business when I got my first cell phone. The phone was huge but allowed me to represent my company even if I wasn’t in my office. I thought that was the greatest invention and there was no place to go from there. But now we’ve come to smart phones that let you talk, play music , compete in games, take pictures, film videos and upload to YouTube or Facebook, find a restaurant in your area and dial a number at your voice command – plus more.

In terms of self improvement it is important to acknowledge that things change and people change. In relation to phones like many other things I think of the trite saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”While the phone has become feature-rich and much more complex to use it is still a means to communicate. We need to exchange information and the phone lets us do that whether it is by a land-line phone, a cell phone, or one of the Internet applications. We still need to talk, listen and be listened to.

People have changed as well. We seem to be more open to new ideas, more accepting of change, more accepting of differences but we still have a long way to go. There is no limit to how high we can go, how much we can discover, how “new and improved” can continue to become  even more “new and improved.”

We haven’t seen the end to how much phones can and most likely will change. And, as human beings, we have just scratched the surface of what we can learn and how much we can accomplish. It is up to us to see that future change includes greater understanding of ourselves and others and that we make progress in the things that truly matter and that contribute to the betterment of humanity.

Fasten your seat belt because it’s going to be a fun and wild ride.

By Irene Conlan -

Last week I had an appointment with a hematologist to review my lab results. It seems that I have developed a high level of iron that borders on “dangerous” and they wanted to know if I have blood disorder called  hemochromatosis  and if it’s genetic. Well, I don’t have it and I’m grateful for that, but it’s the visit to the doctor’s office that I found interesting – and in the long run quite amusing.

My appointment was made three weeks before as I completed my first visit there. I had my schedule book with me and not only entered the time and date of the next appointment but read it back to the scheduler to be sure I had it correct. I did. (sometimes I don’t so I’m extra cautious)

My appointment was for 11:45 a.m and I arrived a few minutes early and went to the receptionist to check in. “You don’t have an appointment today,” she said with a look and tone that asked, “How stupid can you be?” I told her I had scheduled it when I left my last appointment on September 6th and asked her what my appointment time and date was supposed to be. She saw that I had been there on September 6th but could not find an appointment scheduled at all. She acknowledged that the mistake was on their end and asked me to come back the next day – Thursday. “I can’t I said, “I have a radio show at that  time.” She rolled her eyes and asked me to wait. Coming back she told me to have a seat and that the doctor would see me while I was there. Remember, I just had to get lab results – no long  exam, etc.

The large waiting room was full so I took one of the two seats available and got out my book – I always travel with a book. A few minutes later a delivery person came in with an armload of bags of food from Chilis and the aroma filled the waiting room. They had her go back out and come in through a side door but by then everyone in the waiting room looked like they could grab a bag of food and run to the nearest place to scarf it down.

All of the employees disappeared except the  receptionist. The patients and family members in the waiting room grumbled. Some of them had been there well over an hour already.

An hour and a half later I was called to go to the exam room. And after ten or fifteen minutes the doctor came in. He called up my record on the computer and proceeded to tell me that I did not have hemochromatosis but that I still had a dangerous level of ferrite (iron) in my blood and we would initially treat it with diet. He emphasized the importance of diet, telling me that the person scheduling my next appointment would give me a copy of a diet and I must follow it strictly. “If it doesn’t come down,” he announced, “you will have to have a phlebotomy” and explained phlebotomy to me like I was in the first grade. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I had a master’s degree in Nursing. No harm, no foul on that one, but I thought his explanation was funny. It took all of three minutes to get the news and be told to follow the strict diet that they were going to give me.

I was quickly back to the reception desk and in front of the woman who had botched the schedule the visit before. I whipped out my trusty schedule book thinking that perhaps I ought to get the new appointment witnessed and notarized. She gave me a date and time for the follow up appointment acting like I was interfering with her life. She handed me an appointment card but no diet. “Excuse me,” I said trying to get her attention again. “The doctor said you would give me a copy of a diet that I need to follow.” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we’ve been asked for that before but we don’t have any.” “But he said I have to have it,” I replied. She got up saying she was going to go ask the nurses but she knew they didn’t have a copy of the diet I needed. She returned to tell me she was right – no copy of the diet. “I guess I could find one on the Internet” she said, obviously annoyed. I told her I could do that when I got home, and looking relieved, she told me she thought that was a good idea.

Coming home, I spent the next hour on the Internet looking for a diet that would lower the iron level in my blood. I found several but they were conflicting and I’m still unclear on precisely what I should and should not eat. I’ll give it my best shot. Monday I’ll call my cardiologist and my PCP to see if they have any advice.

So let’s recap. I spent a half an hour driving to get to an appointment that they hadn’t entered into the database. I waited over an hour and a half to see a doctor who took three minutes to tell me I needed to follow a diet they can’t give me. I was treated like I was an imposition on their day and my insurance had to pay big money for the visit.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Fortunately, I don’t have a medical emergency. But I DO need to take steps to reduce the iron level in my blood. I won’t get  the help I need from this doctor’s office even though he is a “renowned” physician.

Unfortunately for us all, this was not a unique experience. I’m sure you have your own story to tell. Do you think these kinds of experiences have anything to do with the fact that people are turning to alternative and complementary medicine?

I’m glad I had a book and my sense of humor along for the visit.