Mr. Steve

I am sorry for the blogs being so off but I can't tell you how busy I have been the last couple of days.

It seems I have been busy for the last couple of years. I mean not just in the practice but with life. I know you all with small children can relate.

We are interviewing for an associate, as we speak. I am so looking forward to someone coming in and maybe after a while taking some heat off me. This has been an interesting process and I will tell you in a future blog.

Anyway, about Mr. Steve...

I got a call on my day off (I hate that) and it goes something like this.
"When you come in tomorrow you are probably going to get a call from Mr.Steve. There were some fireworks and I probably should tell you about them. I was at a Braves Spring Training game. I am on the third row right behing the dugout. I have had two beers, it is an awesome weather day. I have peanut shells all over my clothes and in my teeth. Can you see this? I try not to care because s#@$%!t happens and I am watching baseball with one of my best buddies.

But this is what happened...

Now let me tell you about Mr. Steve. He is about 47 years old. He has been a patient of mine for about 9 years. He had a crappy mouth, I educated him and he did everything I said. He now has a great mouth.
He a bunch of composite restorations and a couple of crowns. He loves me to death. Has never missed an appointment and speaks very highly of me.
He runs a outdoor equipment rental shop. If I need anything I usually call him first. I don't think I have every done business with him but I have called him a couple of time.

He has a fiance'. It turns out his fiance' has a past. Her ex-husband and his family were patients here. They were always terrible patients. Her ex had been in jail for drugs and was always very careless about his teeth and his appointments. Then she started coming here and it was more of the same.
This is where the story gets crazy...
Turns out in one of their drug induced fights, allegedly, her and her ex were fighting. They were driving (she was driving, he was the passenger) on a dark back street and she stopped the car. He got out of the car and they continued to fight. Things got out of control (brace yourself) and she ran him over and killed him. You read that right. It was in the paper and it was a huge deal for our little town. She was convicted and went to jail. I think for not very long because of self defense or temporary insanity kind of thing.

Now Mr. Steve and his ex-con fiance' are pregnant and going to be married. But the fiance' has a toothache and he wants her to be seen by his favorite dentist. But before he calls here they have already been to the emergency room and has probably heard it from her for about two weeks and then he calls us.

So he calls M, one of my best employees. She can handle anything I throw at her. She has a pleasant phone voice and understands how I feel about service (very important).
He tells her the story and asked to get in. Now she is jammed when he calls. If you are in the restaurant business she is "in the weeds". She asked him if she could look over the schedule and call him back. He says, "no problem".
Now she is looking at my schedule and it is full for about a week. Not just full but packed. So I am thinking she might have been trying to confirm people to see if something might open up for him. (Just as an aside all the stuff about the running over people and going to jail happened before M got here. So she doesn't know about the squishing).
45 minutes later Mr.S calls back steaming mad. He starts in on M. "I have been a patient there for a long there a long time. I don't know who you are and if you have been there long but you might not be there much longer. Do you know who I am? I am FRIEND of Dr. John's. I also know you know about my fiance's past and can't believe you would hold that against her. That stuff is in the past and she is hurting and I need an appointment. "
She says, "Dr. John, I was trying to help him and he was being belligerent and then started in on the past thing that I didn't know what he was talking about. I had had enough of this guy and I was miliseconds away from hanging up in this guy"

"Oh, by the way GOOD MORNING, Dr. John" This was about 6:50am on Tuesday.
Of course I got a call at about 8am from Mr.Steve. I asked if I can call him back.
I mean I was jammed on Tuesday.

I will tell you what happened tomorrow.
I promise tomorrow, not Monday because I don't want to leave you hanging too long.
I hate doing this to you but it will run way long and I have to run put on my DAD hat now.

Thanks for your patience.