nerd’s eye view

Breathe

November 12, 2005 – 8:52 am | by nerd's eye view

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I have a confession to make. Sometimes, when I’m sick, I wait until the weekend to call the clinic. This is because if I call during the week, they make me get dressed and go downtown to see the doctor. But if I call on the weekend, the on-call doctor calls me back and we can talk about what’s going on without my having to get out of my jammies. I still have to get dressed to go to the pharmacy, but I don’t have to go all the way down to the clinic, sit there waiting with all the other sickies, and then, after no longer than I’d spend on the phone with my doc, head back home again. Also, I do not have to pay for an office visit if I use this method. Cheap, I know, but I have mediocre coverage. Plus, why can’t I call the doc on a weekday? What gives?

The very helpful doc I talked to this morning told me that if I had bothered to come to the clinic this week I would have been surrounded by folks with the exact same symptoms that I’ve come down with. Everyone and their brother has an upper respiratory viral infection. “I must have seen 20 of them yesterday,” the doc said. He gave me a stern warning to keep a close eye on it, in spite of how common it is, because it’s sitting in my lungs. As a girl who’s had the pnue, his warning wasn’t wasted on me. “Seriously,” he said, “if your breathing doesn’t improve in 24 hours, you need to go to the emergency room.”

I’m confident that won’t be necessary, after all, I’m on it, already. I’ve been doing almost all the stuff he told me to do - taking zinc, drinking vast quantities of non-caffeinated beverages - I just have to start using the steamer to keep the old sinuses open. Stupid sinuses.

I had to cancel my day on the snow today. That sucks so much, but it doesn’t suck as much as pneumonia, so I’m willing. I slid the box of new snowshoe gear out of sight so it wasn’t sitting there looking so inviting. Plus, I think it was starting to sulk. The brand new snowshoes that MSR sent me were looking mighty pissed when they heard me coughing yesterday afternoon.

I need to get on top of this thing. I’m supposed to fly to California on Thursday. Canceling a day on the snow doesn’t suck nearly as much as canceling a trip to California. I’m off to the pharmacy - it’s just two blocks away - and then, it’s back to bed.