REVIEW : Remote Area Medical

     I was really only planning on beauty reviews and similar things, but after I encountered this group of awesome people, I really felt like this was a thing I should write about. These people need to be given high fives, hand shakes, and hugs for what they are doing for people who can’t afford health care.

     That trailer doesn’t look like much, does it? I didn’t think so either, but once I checked into this group and even watched their documentary, “Remote Area Medical”, which if you have Netflix and a little spare time, you should definitely check out. (Actually about two weeks before I had even heard of them I was trying to find something to watch on Netflix and their documentary popped up, it wasn’t until after my failed attempt to go on Friday afternoon that it clicked in my head and I went home and watched it Friday night.) Heads up to the squeamish people though, they do show people having teeth pulled, I wish I had been warned. Maybe there is a warning in the beginning and I just didn’t see it, but hey, I’ve warned you. What a gal, right?
 

     They show up in random towns, sometimes larger towns, sometimes smaller more rural towns, like mine. They provide free medical, dental and vision to anyone who shows up at their ‘doorstep’. They even had a ‘mammovan’ there and were providing mammograms to women. I heard talk that they were doing other lady oriented medical things as well.

 

      My fiancee works the graveyard shift at a gas station and talked to a few people who were waiting in line for them to start passing out numbers at 3am. I got a tad bit discouraged but asked around and someone had a print out they had posted around town and they were doing walk-ins as well. I don’t know if they do walk-ins at every stop they make. You might want to check ahead of time, just to be safe. I attempted to go around 1:30 or 2 on Friday but was too late to get any help that day. Some extremely nice people helped me and let me know that I could come back in the morning as a walk-in, or they would be doing the number thing again starting at 3am. Now I would have loved to get in line and wait for hours in the middle of the night but recently had been suffering from panic/anxiety attacks and being in a group of people I didn’t know with my stupid stomach going crazy didn’t seem like the greatest idea, so I opted to wait it out until daylight and attempt a walk-in.
 

      I meant to get there about eight in the morning, but when I rolled over my fiancee was already home from work, it was then I realized I over slept. It was 10:45 in the morning. I grabbed myself a bowl of cereal and made a dash for it. Awesomely, I had no troubles getting in and being seen by a doctor, in fact I was out in under an hour. I do however suspect that the results are not typical, and I know for a fact people attempting to get dental or vision were sitting for hours and hours. I did talk to one guy who gave up because he had already been waiting for four hours and said he likely had at least the same amount of wait ahead of him because they only had one eye doctor.

      Let me just state, be prepared to wait, they have very limited amount of doctors. I believe they had two medical doctors on site, one eye doctor, and I’m not sure how many dentists. They were supposed to have two optometrists but I guess the second one wasn’t there on Saturday for some reason. I do know there were probably upwards of ten chairs in the middle of the gym lined up for dental. I didn’t look over to see how that was going. You might stop here and wonder why, well here’s why, I’m a chicken and didn’t want to look because dentists just flat out scare the crap out of me. That being said, I knew immediately I couldn’t try to get dental help because I’d be crying and shaking like a baby, smack in the middle of the gym with people everywhere. I wanted to maintain some shred of dignity in this small town after all.
 

      Overall, I was so incredibly impressed by every single person there. They were so incredibly friendly, and so nice. I can’t stress that enough. The doctor I saw was in every day clothes and honestly, it was actually nice because it didn’t give off that doctor vibe and I could relax just a little. Which was awesome. They do this for free, and work off donations from kind hearted people. I just read somewhere that at some stops they’ll even offer veterinary care, because healthy pets keep their humans healthy. How awesome is that? My only complaint was that the entrance for clients was so poorly marked. If it hadn’t been for the guy I stopped to ask who walked me almost all the way to the entrance, I would have never found it. Every other door in the place was either closed or had a bright pink sign stating “volunteers”.
 

      If you are a person who needs medical help and can’t afford it, check out their website and watch their event calendar to see if they are coming to a town near you. I think you’ll be glad you did.