doctor woes

I need to head to bed.... so I'll try to make this brief.... then tomorrow I will share my airline travel woes!!

Last week I was feeling rather ill. After spending all Halloween morning at Em's school, I never fully recovered! I had fevers, a terrible sore throat and wasn't eating or sleeping. With a looming trip to Savannah planned for Friday evening, I decided to break down and drag myself to the doctor, something I only do if absolutely necessary. I was pretty sure I had either strep throat or I was dying!

The Columbia Medical Plan nurse practitioner and her John's Hopkins intern both agreed - I had something viral, no antibiotics necessary, it would go away on it's own. But, because I had bothered to stop in, they would do a "rapid" strep test anyway. "Rapid" is a HUGE exaggeration. While just across the way, in pediatrics, they actually have the capability of letting their patients know in 5 minutes if they have strep, the family practice people apparently are unable to acquire this ability. Instead, they send your test over to LabCorp, in the same building, who then sends your test out for the "rapid" strep test. Now, is this not the MOST RIDICULOUS thing you've ever heard of????

So, I left my "rapid" strep test in the hands of those trusty, slow lab workers and headed home with the instruction to call mid-morning for my results, especially since they knew I was leaving at 2 pm for the airport. At 10:50 am I placed a call to my doctor's office and was rudely received by the receptionist. She first informed me that I was not allowed to call for test results, that the office would call me. After I told her I'd been instructed to call by the nurse practitioner because I was traveling, she then proceeded to tell me, "MA'AM, if you had strep throat, you would have gotten a call before 10:50. There's NO WAY in the WORLD you have strep throat!!!" So, I hung up, feverishly packed my bags, my Robitussin, my antihistimines, and my Advil - lots of that - and went off to the airport.

Delta happens to be the carrier for the US Military, so on my flight down to Atlanta were 10 US Army doctors, just returning from Afghanistan. I was having a nice conversation with one who was stationed in Hawaii when I was rudely interrupted by T, who asked me, "Where are you?" LOL - he had just dropped me where I was about 20 minutes earlier. What do you mean, where am I?? Then he said, "The doctor's office just called.... you have strep throat!"

At that point, it didn't matter that I had a fever, or that I could hardly swallow, or even that I was sitting across from an Army doctor, the evil side of me kicked in. "WHAT????" Yup, that's what I said. And the rest, well, sorry if you were on either of my flights, or if I saw you when I stopped at McDonald's to eat so that I could keep my sister's kitchen clean - I mean, she was having a baby! I called that doctor's office and gave them a piece of my 100 degree mind! While the nurse was quite apologetic, the receptionist screamed at me again that my husband had already called to take care of everything - some customer service training in her future perhaps??

Off I went to Savannah, only to listen to my sister complain about how all doctors these days are so quick to prescribe antibiotics.... blah, blah, blah.... I then reminded her that mine wasn't, and that shut her up, because when I got there Friday night these were her exact words: Didn't that doctor know you were coming here to take care of your 2 year old niece while your sister had a baby??? And she still didn't give you antibiotics???? End of conversation, miss probiotics!

Anyway.... after 4 days of antibiotics, I'm finally home. Tired from my flight, but happy to home and healthy instead of sick. This is not the first time I've had a similar problem with my doctor... maybe it should be the last time, though!