Third Time's A Charm

Most of you know by now that I've been sick since last Wednesday. I've been battling a nasty cough and heavy sinus congestion. On Saturday it started to ease off, and by Monday it was limited to sniffles and a light cough. However, last night at about 10pm, my cough suddenly got much worse and my chest began building up pressure; feeling as if it were slowly caving in. I knew I had fluid in my lungs. Time to see a doctor...

As you also may know, earlier yesterday I had scheduled a doctor appointment for this morning and had planned to get checked out then. That never happened. Let me tell you what did...

I got ready for bed, figuring I should just get plenty of rest and make a priority of showing up for my appointment in the morning. Unable to fall asleep, I soon began second guessing myself, as I routinely do. Knowing that respiratory issues are not something you want to ignore, I opted to give my mom a call (she works in the medical field and knows quite a bit about all kinds of medical issues). By this time it was about midnight, so I felt bad for waking my parents up. I told her the situation, and she recommended that I go in to get it checked out as soon as possible. I told her I could go to the urgent care department in the building I work at (which is two blocks away). And since she wouldn't be able to sleep after that anyway (she worries), she said she'd meet me down there.

So I drive over there and park. Then, I find out that the urgent care is closed. I had been under the impression that it was open almost every night. Apparantly not. So I stand outside by my car waiting for my mom to arrive, while feeling like a complete idiot for having her come out there when it's closed.

She arrives, I tell her it's closed, and we decide to go to Auburn since they have a hospital there. So for the third time in just over a year, I ended up in the ER...

I filled out my paperwork, got admitted (at about 12:40A), and was escorted to a room by one of the nurses, told to take off my shirt and put on the gown, and that they'll be with me soon, etc. Four minutes later, another nurse peeks her head in the door, gives me the trademark ID bracelet, and then leaves. So there I am, in room #12, sitting on the side of the bed and waiting. A mostly empty room, aside from a bit of the generic medical equipment you'd expect to see in any hospital. There were three magazines on the counter. One of them, devoted to vacations, only reminded me of my last vacation in Maui... where I ended up in the ER. The other two were different issues of Better Investing, which I found pretty fucking ironic in itself considering how rediculously high hospital bills are in this country. At least I have good insurance, otherwise I'd be really fucked.

Anyway, so I'm waiting in the room alone for over an hour! No exaggeration... And still, nobody has even checked on me to see if I'm okay. So I walked out into the hallway, with my gown falling half-off my body, trying to get the attention of the two nurses I saw out there (Whom, by the way, had been chatting, giggling and drinking coffee). When they noticed me standing there I said, while pointing to the room door, "Excuse me, I think somebody forgot about me." They both checked something (a priority list or something) and told me I was next in line to be seen. So I went back into my room and sat down... hoping to god they're not charging me by the minute.

So to skip ahead and tell you the rest of the important stuff, the doctor was a really nice guy. He knew exactly what was going on. He said I have Bronchitis, but luckily it's still in the early stage and is easily treatable. He wrote me a couple prescpriptions for some stuff to take, and I went and stayed the night at my parents' place. They didn't want me to be alone just in case there were problems... So I left a message with my boss at 3am, telling her the basics, and that I won't be in today, etc.


The Bottom Line:

I have the day off and am resting. The doctor said I should be feeling much better by Friday. And I should be back to my usual self by Saturday. We'll see...