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Be respectful of the physician's time. If you reach an

answering service and have to leave a message, don't place
any other calls until you hear back from the practitioner
there's nothing more frustrating to a physician than
receiving an urgent message and then getting a busy
signal when he tries to return the call.

When you reach the physician, you'll want to take a

straightforward and factual tone. Try to have a coherent
story composed of relevant facts; it may help to write
down key points before you place the call. Don't lie about
what you were doing or leave things out if you leave
it to her imagination, she'll probably imagine something
worse than what you were actually doing.

On the other hand, you don't need to explain or

apologize for what you were doing, and you shouldn't
spend a lot of time trying to cover all the details. Simply
explain the basics of what's going on, and let the
practitioner prompt you for whatever other information
she needs.

You: "Hi, Dr. Strate? I'm a patient of Dr. Kool's,

and I've got a problem. My partner and I were doing
some bondage, and she had ropes tied around my
wrists, and now my right thumb has gone numb."

Dr. Strate: "OK, I understand. How tight was the

bondage? Is your hand discolored? Can you move the
thumb?..." and so on.

Please don't try to play the two practitioners against

one another by asking Dr. Strate to second-guess Dr. Kool,
or asking Dr. Strate's opinions about the advice Dr. Kool
has given you.