Doctor...My Brain Hurts...

OK, bad Python quote for the post title.

So, maybe you've heard...I've been sick for a few weeks. I'm starting to have doubts about my doctor. Ummmm...let's call her, Dr. Chen. The first thing isn't really her fault (I hope). When I finally got in to see her, my blood pressure was through the roof. I brought her my prescriptions from back home and she had never heard of one of my meds. Not only that, it wasn't available through my HMO...I guess they weren't getting kickbacks from the right pharmacuetical company, but there was another ACE inhibitor that had pretty much the same side effects (that's what she said). Well, I wasn't really thinking about side effects, I just wanted my headache to go away. So we decided to go with the different med. So one of these possible side effects was a dry cough.

The day I saw her, I was starting to feel a bit funky. Some kind of bug had been going around the school - which is normal with a bunch of germ factories. I start taking the meds, my blood pressure goes down, my headache goes away, but this plague I have gets worse...a lot worse.

For the last 10 days I've been coughing, sneezing and finding other ways to expel mucus (I know, not pretty). So I needed to see Dr. Chen for a follow up anyway so I go and tell her about my symptoms. Now, she's not sure if it's side effects from the new meds or I'm really sick or both. I'm pretty sure I'm just freakin sick...others have it. So she wants me to stop with the one blood pressure med and start antibiotics and a steroid inhaler. Fine. One problem. I get paid in 2 days and I'm still waiting for a check from the mainland to go through (it's only been 5 days). So I tell her that I'll need to wait a couple of days to get the new meds. No problem, she says. Stop the blood pressure med & call her in a couple of days. If I still feel like doody (my word) we can start the antibiotics.

I called her this morning still feeling like hell. "Well, at least we know it wasn't my fault," was her reaction. Uh...Honey, you're not THAT cute. I need a doctor. So she said she'd put in the prescription for the other meds but to wait on starting the one blood pressure med again...she's really worried about this side effect thing. Now I'm starting to think she's given me the real world version of Pankratol or Boinkatol (you'll have to listen to the podcast to get the reference).

Of course when I go to the HMO pharmacy in the afternoon, their reaction is pretty much: Perscription? I don't know nothing 'bout no perscription. So I had to wait an hour while they "filled" it. I don't know...I've seen nurses at Hillside give out enough medication to chill out an entire county to 12 kids in 5 minutes. I don't know what the hour was for.

So now I have new pills, an inhaler that makes me look like my name is "Spaz" and my blood pressure is back up - oh, which Dr. Chen says won't kill me for a couple of days. I'm thinking about getting a new doctor and asking her out to dinner. I think I'll find out if she's trying to kill me first.

And yes, I know I spelled prescription wrong.

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