Moving to Montreal

[WolFish]

The inventory in the store has gone down by one. I suspect that someone is hiding the bikes to get for themselves. At any rate, since they haven't called me I assume that they are assembling the bike. On their site it says they can build it in four hours and it's been two days now. Since tomorrow is a holiday I have to hope that they will call me on Thursday.

I put the bike on my U.S. credit card so there is no danger. If I don't get the bike they will do a chargeback.

[El]

Now we are working on finding a doctor.
We had a recommendation but the guy's reviews went from good to bad. We went anyway and lots of red flags.
The phlebotomist thinks he's Harvard trained - she's been with him for at least 10 years. She tells me he's from America, he's 68 and did his residency at McGill (a Montreal med school and teaching hospital).

The doctor hears that I have lived and worked in MA and was treated in Boston and tells me that he went to Tufts (oops, what happened to Harvard?) but ended up in med school at McGill (he glosses over why). He misses the fact that for years I worked at a teaching hospital in MA as a psychiatric crisis clinician. He tells me he's from Albany - I say, oh, I went to schoo there. Ah, no, he's from Schenectady actually. I say, ah, I know Schenectady as well. He changes the subject, and when he hears that I was born in NYC tells me that most of his relatives live there (huh?)

Since he missed the clue he doesn't know that I know that the only reason to attend med school out of the U.S. is because your grades weren't good enough to get into a U.S. school. He recommends an antidepressant for my ADHD. He tells me that my ADHD is probably lifelong depression which came out as hyperactivity and forgetfulness, and that my strategies to manage it are instead symptoms of OCD. He fishes for depression in other members of my family and comes up dry. I say no worries, I will go to a psychiatrist for treatment.

Now he tells me that he has one year in psychiatry residency.  He's missed my work experience so he doesn't know that I know that a one year psychiatry certificate is like a terminal Master's, which is what you get because you couldn't finish your PhD. The residency for psychiatry is two years. I ask why he didn't finish. He says it was boring.

He proceeds on a long discussion about how he has learned to tell character disordered people from people who can be helped (he also missed that I have a PhD in psychology), and then suddenly stops and says, "But you're not character disordered." (Pyraxis told me this - by that time I was thoroughly bored by his monologue and lost by the barrage of words.). He also turned to Pyraxis and tried to impress her with his stories, but that didn't work either.

They did an ECG which they can charge for but he didn't listen to my heart (I have a murmur). All kinds of blood tests but they didn't weigh me (I'm overweight). But the kicker is that he didn't ask how I was diagnosed with ADHD, so he's pitting his half residency against my psychiatrist in MA who spent two session diagnosing me, another few trying alternate medication (I didn't want to take a stimulant), and five years treating me.

So this guy is a fail as a GP. We'll have to look further. At least he didn't argue with the asthma diagnosis or the need for an epi-pen (though he says mine, which is expired, is good for "like a hundred years."

After writing this I'm thinking this guy actually meets the criteria for anti-social personality disorder.

He sounds character disordered.  O_o

Also, should I bother registering offense at "a one year psychiatry certificate is like a terminal Master's, which is what you get because you couldn't finish your PhD"? 

[WolFish]

^ I don't know.  It wasn't meant to be offensive. When I was in school that was what it was. Sometimes the research required for the dissertation defeats people and they decide they don't need the PhD. I knew two people like that when I was in Northampton.

[WolFish]

The inventory in the store has gone down by one. I suspect that someone is hiding the bikes to get for themselves. At any rate, since they haven't called me I assume that they are assembling the bike. On their site it says they can build it in four hours and it's been two days now. Since tomorrow is a holiday I have to hope that they will call me on Thursday.

I put the bike on my U.S. credit card so there is no danger. If I don't get the bike they will do a chargeback.

Damnit.
They sold me the bike, their inventory went down, but all they have is the so called unisex bike which cannot possibly be a unisex bike because the average male would never fit on it. So even though the model number is different and they sold me the men's bike they assembled the women's bike? When I was in the store I saw that they had a bazillion of the unisex model. Gee, could that have something to do with their pushing this one  on me? Did they think I wouldn't know the difference? Maybe they think that, like the average Canadian, I'm just going to accept it because that's the way it is?
I think not.
I think I am going to end up getting my money back. I think these guys are idiots.

[sg1008]

The inventory in the store has gone down by one. I suspect that someone is hiding the bikes to get for themselves. At any rate, since they haven't called me I assume that they are assembling the bike. On their site it says they can build it in four hours and it's been two days now. Since tomorrow is a holiday I have to hope that they will call me on Thursday.

I put the bike on my U.S. credit card so there is no danger. If I don't get the bike they will do a chargeback.

Damnit.
They sold me the bike, their inventory went down, but all they have is the so called unisex bike which cannot possibly be a unisex bike because the average male would never fit on it. So even though the model number is different and they sold me the men's bike they assembled the women's bike? When I was in the store I saw that they had a bazillion of the unisex model. Gee, could that have something to do with their pushing this one  on me? Did they think I wouldn't know the difference? Maybe they think that, like the average Canadian, I'm just going to accept it because that's the way it is?
I think not.
I think I am going to end up getting my money back. I think these guys are idiots.

I think you are right.

[Gopher Gary]

Maybe they think that, like the average Canadian, I'm just going to accept it because that's the way it is?
I think not.

Maybe they think you'll apologize. 

[MLA]

Maybe they think that, like the average Canadian, I'm just going to accept it because that's the way it is?
I think not.

Maybe they think you'll apologize. 

Or surrender.

Wait, that's just French Canada

[El]

^ I don't know.  It wasn't meant to be offensive. When I was in school that was what it was. Sometimes the research required for the dissertation defeats people and they decide they don't need the PhD. I knew two people like that when I was in Northampton.

No worries.   

I actually couldn't have gone for my Ph.D. or Psy.D. (the latter being what a lot of my classmates went on to, which makes me think less of it, lol) because finances were getting very scary at the end of my Master's, so I can't know if, in a perfect world, I'd have preferred to get further education or not.  I know at the time I was eager anyway to start full-time work in the field and already very frustrated with the disconnect between theory and practice, and I'd done a thesis at the bachelor's level and had no fucking interest in doing that again (interested in research though I am as a result of doing that thesis, it was extremely stressful and not something I wanted to take on again unless I had to).  I always meant for my MA to be a terminal degree and am still OK with the fact that it was (tbh my main regret is doing psych and not social work; LICSW would be more marketable than LMHC, but LMHC still isn't bad).

God only knows if I'd have been able to get into a doctoral program (other than the Psy.D. program I mentioned before that I'm pretty sure almost never rejects anyone) or if I'd have been able to hack it.  I know I could not do school on top of my current workload, and, while my financial situation is better than it was, it's not "I can just work part time for several years while I pursue further higher education" good, even if you discount debt.

[WolFish]

^ I don't know.  It wasn't meant to be offensive. When I was in school that was what it was. Sometimes the research required for the dissertation defeats people and they decide they don't need the PhD. I knew two people like that when I was in Northampton.

No worries.   

I actually couldn't have gone for my Ph.D. or Psy.D. (the latter being what a lot of my classmates went on to, which makes me think less of it, lol) because finances were getting very scary at the end of my Master's, so I can't know if, in a perfect world, I'd have preferred to get further education or not.  I know at the time I was eager anyway to start full-time work in the field and already very frustrated with the disconnect between theory and practice, and I'd done a thesis at the bachelor's level and had no fucking interest in doing that again (interested in research though I am as a result of doing that thesis, it was extremely stressful and not something I wanted to take on again unless I had to).  I always meant for my MA to be a terminal degree and am still OK with the fact that it was (tbh my main regret is doing psych and not social work; LICSW would be more marketable than LMHC, but LMHC still isn't bad).

God only knows if I'd have been able to get into a doctoral program (other than the Psy.D. program I mentioned before that I'm pretty sure almost never rejects anyone) or if I'd have been able to hack it.  I know I could not do school on top of my current workload, and, while my financial situation is better than it was, it's not "I can just work part time for several years while I pursue further higher education" good, even if you discount debt.

I thought you had a PhD    You certainly carry yourself as well as one. PhDs are expensive unless you are a minority group member - they don't count women as minority anymore since the field is filled with them.
I'm unmarketable because the PhD is kind of worthless without a license and you have to get people to supervise you for it. I've failed at that at least twice due to my lack of social skills. Teaching is a lot easier since it's online and I offend less that way.
My cousin got her MSW first and then the PhD in psychology - she is some kind of director of a homeless mental health place in Boston. She did it that way because the income from the MSW allowed her to afford the PhD program.

[sg1008]

In psychology, PhD programs are more often than not covered by the university with a stipend (as long as you complete the program in a timely manner). Depends on the university, but when I was applying that was the general structure....the idea being that you are 'paid' to do research that benefits society in some way.

[WolFish]

When I went I did have a stipend of $10,000 a year plus tuition paid. It wasn't enough. The amount of the stipend never changed so I had to get a job by the end of it. The internship was a little better because it was in a town where costs could be managed and I was more free to get a better part time job.

[El]

Yeah, I had graduate assistantships during my Master's which were explained the same way as "stipends"... they nowhere near cut the cost of living.  I'm in a lot of debt.    Not a crippling amount, especially for my level of education, but... a lot.

I don't have interest in teaching (at least not full-time) and have a lot of disillusionment around research, and around academia in general.  A Ph.D. wouldn't really add much to the range of things I'm able to do AND actually WANT to do.... other than make more money.  (Seeing how much my insurance company would dish out for 10 billed hours of neuropsych testing was the best advertisement I've yet seen for getting a Ph.D., lol.)  But if I reach the point where if I'm doing more education to make more money, I'd rather try for something like tech than keep doing this same career track.

I thought you had a PhD    You certainly carry yourself as well as one. PhDs are expensive unless you are a minority group member - they don't count women as minority anymore since the field is filled with them.
I'm unmarketable because the PhD is kind of worthless without a license and you have to get people to supervise you for it. I've failed at that at least twice due to my lack of social skills. Teaching is a lot easier since it's online and I offend less that way.
My cousin got her MSW first and then the PhD in psychology - she is some kind of director of a homeless mental health place in Boston. She did it that way because the income from the MSW allowed her to afford the PhD program.

TY for that- and I was mostly giving you shit; not really offended.  Even if your attitude was snobbily in favor of "more education means you're a better, smarter person," that's not something I agree with and not a standard I therefore feel the need to hold myself to, if that makes sense.  I hit an economic barrier that may have held me back from my "true academic potential," but I still got my Master's, and that's more than a lot of people are able to do.  I'm blessed I was able to get as far as I did.

I've been in situations where I realized I had a better grasp of clients and what to do with them than their psychiatrists or the physiologists who tested them.  Education in this field really doesn't apply very well to practice IMO; experience matters more.  And neither can compensate for an outright lack of common sense (or just plain being an asshole, which is also a problem I've seen people with higher education and higher pay than me have problems with).

[WolFish]

Maybe they think that, like the average Canadian, I'm just going to accept it because that's the way it is?
I think not.

Maybe they think you'll apologize. 

Or surrender.

Wait, that's just French Canada

Now they are saying they don't have the bike at all. Yesterday they had a bike and said it was unisex. Since the Hydra has an odd shape I thought it might be the right bike after all. Today I couldn't even get them to check the number on the bike (since obviously they can't tell by looking at it).
I won't be surrendering. This time I got the manager's name and regardless of what happens I will be contacting someone somewhere because here they seem to think it's a bad deal to engage in false advertising here. If I cry fraud I suspect things will get resolved quickly. Really glad that I put this on my U.S. credit card. If they don't come up with a bike by Wednesday I will be getting my money back. I suspect that these guys couldn't fix it if they wanted to.

Pyraxis grew up in this system and hated it because no one is allowed to shine. Everyone has to adhere to the same level of dumb since average intelligence on this continent actually is below average. I had the same issue growing up. The nuns did their level best to convince me that I was unintelligent, but they couldn't ever fix the test scores. So they made excuses instead. Oh, other students could have gotten those scores if they had taken the test. They must have been cut to the quick when I got into the high school for the gifted (minimum IQ - 140).

Here it seems like people are dumbed down and then the government has to protect them - for example I can't work here on my visa because I might be taking a job away from all the Canadians who have PhDs. Not. I've met very few people who are able to step outside of their job description. Or worse: here's the initial conversation I had when calling to find out about my bike:
Me: "Hello, I'm calling about the bike they are building for me."
Clerk: "What department?"

If Canadians had to compete with people from the U.S. many of them would fail. On the other hand, if they did, wouldn't that raise the standard and encourage people to do their best? I see nothing in the culture here that encourages people to do their best. But unlike, them, I won't give up. To their shame there is also William Shatner, but one bad apple and all that. It's got to be here somewhere. They have Charles deLint. They have Joe Shuster. They have Alexander Graham Bell.

[WolFish]

Yeah, I had graduate assistantships during my Master's which were explained the same way as "stipends"... they nowhere near cut the cost of living.  I'm in a lot of debt.    Not a crippling amount, especially for my level of education, but... a lot.

I don't have interest in teaching (at least not full-time) and have a lot of disillusionment around research, and around academia in general.  A Ph.D. wouldn't really add much to the range of things I'm able to do AND actually WANT to do.... other than make more money.  (Seeing how much my insurance company would dish out for 10 billed hours of neuropsych testing was the best advertisement I've yet seen for getting a Ph.D., lol.)  But if I reach the point where if I'm doing more education to make more money, I'd rather try for something like tech than keep doing this same career track.

I thought you had a PhD    You certainly carry yourself as well as one. PhDs are expensive unless you are a minority group member - they don't count women as minority anymore since the field is filled with them.
I'm unmarketable because the PhD is kind of worthless without a license and you have to get people to supervise you for it. I've failed at that at least twice due to my lack of social skills. Teaching is a lot easier since it's online and I offend less that way.
My cousin got her MSW first and then the PhD in psychology - she is some kind of director of a homeless mental health place in Boston. She did it that way because the income from the MSW allowed her to afford the PhD program.

TY for that- and I was mostly giving you shit; not really offended.  Even if your attitude was snobbily in favor of "more education means you're a better, smarter person," that's not something I agree with and not a standard I therefore feel the need to hold myself to, if that makes sense.  I hit an economic barrier that may have held me back from my "true academic potential," but I still got my Master's, and that's more than a lot of people are able to do.  I'm blessed I was able to get as far as I did.

I've been in situations where I realized I had a better grasp of clients and what to do with them than their psychiatrists or the physiologists who tested them.  Education in this field really doesn't apply very well to practice IMO; experience matters more.  And neither can compensate for an outright lack of common sense (or just plain being an asshole, which is also a problem I've seen people with higher education and higher pay than me have problems with).

Dang. The shit went right over my head. Dang aspergers.

I am of the opinion that to get a PhD all that's needed in terms of intelligence is a high school diploma. The PhD means nothing in terms of intelligence. The best education I got in psychology was working at the crisis service in Springfield. There's not really any way that I could prove I'm not an education snob. But that was the point I was making about the doctor. He failed his residency yet was trying to convince me that having the terminal certificate meant something.

The same sort of thing happened to me at the crisis service - we had something we called "doctoring" them. If someone was being snobbish or downright stupid, they would put me on the phone and I would say "This is doctor ..." It was a lot of fun. The insurance companies look for the doctor too, which to me was weird given that many of the other folks I worked with had far more experience than me.

The psychologists were the worst - entitled and stupid. They didn't expect to encounter another psychologist because all crisis workers are MAs.

"This is doctor so and so and I want my client put in the hospital"
"Well, this is doctor .... and your client has to have a crisis evaluation after which we will see what happens." They shut up when they realize they're talking to another PhD.

I got in a lot of trouble for not respecting the hierarchy. In fact, I got fired for that back in 2006. But I don't mind because I saved a life, and now that I am gone from there it's the best thing that could have happened to me.

The last straw for them was an MD complaining that I had nixed his diagnosis of substance abuse/DTs for a woman who said that she was maintaining her sobriety. She came in saying that she was hearing things. She was having some other symptoms that the MD diagnosed as intoxication. They were going to send her home. On questioning her I found that she was hearing what sounded like voices coming from her counter. What was opposite the counter? Her gas stove. I asked how long since the stove had been inspected. It had not since she'd moved in. How long ago? 20 years. I told the doc I thought that she had carbon monoxide poisoning. He said, "She'd have a headache. She doesn't have a headache." I went back and asked the woman if her head felt funny at all. She said that she had what felt like a tight band around her head. I went back to the doc and said, "She does have a headache." He questioned her, did a blood test for carbon monoxide. It was off the charts - so high that they sent the fire department to her house to shut off the gas because of the risk of explosion.

The woman thanked me, but later I heard that the MD had called to complain about me. Later that week they fired me for arriving late to the crisis assessment. I'd had to pick up my car from the shop (they knew this) before the assessment, and that made me about 15 minutes later than I had said I would be there.

[El]

Yeah, I had graduate assistantships during my Master's which were explained the same way as "stipends"... they nowhere near cut the cost of living.  I'm in a lot of debt.    Not a crippling amount, especially for my level of education, but... a lot.

I don't have interest in teaching (at least not full-time) and have a lot of disillusionment around research, and around academia in general.  A Ph.D. wouldn't really add much to the range of things I'm able to do AND actually WANT to do.... other than make more money.  (Seeing how much my insurance company would dish out for 10 billed hours of neuropsych testing was the best advertisement I've yet seen for getting a Ph.D., lol.)  But if I reach the point where if I'm doing more education to make more money, I'd rather try for something like tech than keep doing this same career track.

I thought you had a PhD    You certainly carry yourself as well as one. PhDs are expensive unless you are a minority group member - they don't count women as minority anymore since the field is filled with them.
I'm unmarketable because the PhD is kind of worthless without a license and you have to get people to supervise you for it. I've failed at that at least twice due to my lack of social skills. Teaching is a lot easier since it's online and I offend less that way.
My cousin got her MSW first and then the PhD in psychology - she is some kind of director of a homeless mental health place in Boston. She did it that way because the income from the MSW allowed her to afford the PhD program.

TY for that- and I was mostly giving you shit; not really offended.  Even if your attitude was snobbily in favor of "more education means you're a better, smarter person," that's not something I agree with and not a standard I therefore feel the need to hold myself to, if that makes sense.  I hit an economic barrier that may have held me back from my "true academic potential," but I still got my Master's, and that's more than a lot of people are able to do.  I'm blessed I was able to get as far as I did.

I've been in situations where I realized I had a better grasp of clients and what to do with them than their psychiatrists or the physiologists who tested them.  Education in this field really doesn't apply very well to practice IMO; experience matters more.  And neither can compensate for an outright lack of common sense (or just plain being an asshole, which is also a problem I've seen people with higher education and higher pay than me have problems with).

Dang. The shit went right over my head. Dang aspergers.

I am of the opinion that to get a PhD all that's needed in terms of intelligence is a high school diploma. The PhD means nothing in terms of intelligence. The best education I got in psychology was working at the crisis service in Springfield. There's not really any way that I could prove I'm not an education snob. But that was the point I was making about the doctor. He failed his residency yet was trying to convince me that having the terminal certificate meant something.

The same sort of thing happened to me at the crisis service - we had something we called "doctoring" them. If someone was being snobbish or downright stupid, they would put me on the phone and I would say "This is doctor ..." It was a lot of fun. The insurance companies look for the doctor too, which to me was weird given that many of the other folks I worked with had far more experience than me.

The psychologists were the worst - entitled and stupid. They didn't expect to encounter another psychologist because all crisis workers are MAs.

"This is doctor so and so and I want my client put in the hospital"
"Well, this is doctor .... and your client has to have a crisis evaluation after which we will see what happens." They shut up when they realize they're talking to another PhD.

I got in a lot of trouble for not respecting the hierarchy. In fact, I got fired for that back in 2006. But I don't mind because I saved a life, and now that I am gone from there it's the best thing that could have happened to me.

The last straw for them was an MD complaining that I had nixed his diagnosis of substance abuse/DTs for a woman who said that she was maintaining her sobriety. She came in saying that she was hearing things. She was having some other symptoms that the MD diagnosed as intoxication. They were going to send her home. On questioning her I found that she was hearing what sounded like voices coming from her counter. What was opposite the counter? Her gas stove. I asked how long since the stove had been inspected. It had not since she'd moved in. How long ago? 20 years. I told the doc I thought that she had carbon monoxide poisoning. He said, "She'd have a headache. She doesn't have a headache." I went back and asked the woman if her head felt funny at all. She said that she had what felt like a tight band around her head. I went back to the doc and said, "She does have a headache." He questioned her, did a blood test for carbon monoxide. It was off the charts - so high that they sent the fire department to her house to shut off the gas because of the risk of explosion.

The woman thanked me, but later I heard that the MD had called to complain about me. Later that week they fired me for arriving late to the crisis assessment. I'd had to pick up my car from the shop (they knew this) before the assessment, and that made me about 15 minutes later than I had said I would be there.

...didn't they test her BAC?  Don't they drug test basically *everyone* in the ER, anyway?