I’m beyond exhausted on my quest to find a new psychiatrist.

I’m adament that I see a female psychiatrist. I often don’t mind the gender of my medical providers, but I am finding that I have a much better connection with female doctors. Also, I want to see a provider who is not out of my way: her office needs to be either near where I live, near where I work or on the way. That’s not too much to ask, right?

I logged on to my insurance company’s web site to find a new provider and my choices were actually pretty limited, but I found a female psychiatrist near Dr. L’s office. I was in no rush to get an appointment because I have a follow up with Dr. L in late July, but I knew I needed to go ahead and get on the books with a new doctor so we could start the new patient process.

When I called Dr. G’s office I went through nearly all the initial information the receptionist needed. But then there was a gigantic problem: Dr. G only works on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Dr. G’s office is near where I work, which is 45 minutes from my house. I work from home on Wednesdays and I’m not willing to drive that far on a weekend for a doctor’s appointment. I considered changing my schedule for the days I have an appointment with Dr. G but there would be such a domino affect that it wasn’t worth it. I could see Dr. G’s husband, who works six days a week at that location, but at this point I’m not comfortable talking about my issues with a man.

Yesterday afternoon I spent close to two hours in search of a new psychiatrist. I started with my insurance company web site and expanded my search to a 50-mile radius from my house. There are plenty of in-patient psychiatric facilities in the area I want, but few individual females. I was incredibly frustrated. I actually thought I found one but when I called her office she’s out until the middle of July. That’s three weeks from now! I understand that emergencies happen, but I can’t imagine the workload she’ll have when she returns, not to mention wondering if this is a regular thing to be gone for so long.

I even started to Google psychiatrist’s offices in my area. Even went to the yellow pages. But, I had to put the search on hold because I was driving myself crazy. I’m rationalizing with myself that I’m going to have to give in on my criteria: either I find a male psychiatrist or I drive out of my way. I’m more inclined to drive out of my way.