Angela S White, ATC, PA-C

My friend at medical school said all physicians are required to take classes on how to connect with patients. I don’t know if this is true for physician assistants.
I went to PAMF for a knee injury. Angela introduced herself as the physician assistant. She came in with a Nurse Practitioner in training. After some brief questions, she asked me to walk in the hallway bare feet. As I was limping across the hall, she was very busy picking out everything I did wrong to the NP. «Look how she tilted this way to compensate…» She made me do two round trips so that she could complete her thorough critique. At the end I was expecting a summary of what I did wrong and how I could do better, instead I got this question from Angela: «Is that the only way you know how to walk?» Duh, I was embarrassed. Clearly my bad posture was unacceptable to her standard. I didn’t know how to answer. Do I know how not to limp? Yes, if only my knee would stop hurting, which is why I was at the clinic in the first place?!
Next she made me lie down for a knee exam. She was talking to the NP the whole time. «Look how tight her hamstring is. This is incredible. Hm… maybe it’s due to muscle spasm around this area.» I felt like a piece of flesh on the butcher block. The conversation carried on as if I was not there. After she completed her download to the NP, she suddenly had mercy and threw me a dog bone, maybe to thank me for being so cooperative during her mini-​lecture, «Go home and look at yourself in the mirror, compare your two knees and you will see the problem.» Gee, thanks!
Unlike my experience at Stanford, when the PAMF doctor came in later, he was already fully briefed by Angela. I have no idea what the doctor was told, or not told. He jumped to a conclusion without looking at my knee.
I did look myself in the mirror that evening. Yes, my knee look horribly deformed and swollen, but I ain’t having it treated at PAMF. No way.