I fired my periodontist today

If you want to know why, you can read this open letter I wrote to him, the jerk. Since I wrote that letter, however, I've had time to think that if only I could have a dialogue with him, maybe all would not be lost. I thought we could communicate (when I was not under local anesthetic and emotional duress), and find some common ground.

The best part of this plan was getting to use my newly-acquired feedback giving skills (thanks Phoenix!). First, I asked him if now was a good time to talk about what transpired during the surgery, then, I asked him if I could give him some feedback. He actively hemmed and hawed. Have you ever seen anyone actually make the sounds, "hemm" and "haw" while they cock their head sideways? Well, I have. But he agreed. So I put my discourse on.

I had him for about four minutes. He was following along my line of reasoning, and sort of nodding, and sort of watching me suspiciously. I think it was around the word "misogynistic" that I lost him. He glazed. I kept going like an adrenaline-powered steamroller. I had to say my piece! But in the middle of my speechifying, he got up, interrupting me mid-sentence, and killed a fly on the window. I am not joking. He actually did.

And then I knew that was it. So, using my awesome feedback-giving skill-set, I summed up what I thought he was saying: "So, you are telling me that you will make absolutely no effort to change, nor will you suspend your need to talk during surgical procedures, nor will you apologize?" He answered in the affirmative. So I fired him.

I feel vindicated. I feel like I have asserted my right to be a girl, to have feelings, to be treated nicely, to express myself, and to fucking fire someone who refuses to make my life (and dental aesthetics) better.