Weblog Entry - 11/06/2001: "ups and downs"

11/06/2001 Entry: ups and downs

I've been down with a cold for awhile now -- on and off last week, and worse this week. So, I'm feeling sick and cranky and somewhat picked-on by my health-care providers. I did manage to feel well enough to thoroughly enjoy Ethan's and my five-year-anniversary dinner party on Saturday night, which was sumptuous and wonderful. But three days later, I'm sick and cranky, so this is mostly a rant about my health, and not a whole lot about the lovely dinner. Even though, to be honest, the dinner was a lot more good than being sick is bad. :)

So, the rant: Why me? Why is it that it doesn't seem like anyone else in my life gets the kind of rotten experiences just doing their day-to-day living-type-tasks. I don't think I'm hostile, unintelligible, or over-optimistic; I just want to get my services as-advertised, like other people do. But somehow, it's not working for me.

Other people I know can get doctor's appointments if they're sick without having to wait four days. Heck, until recently, even I could get 'em within forty-eight hours. Here I am, sick, for nine days, now, getting other people sick, and I call three doctors and they don't want to see me until the end of the week, early next week, four, five, or six days away. Please. I understand that the doctors take on the patient loads they do because they need to address some very high expenses, two of them being medical school and malpractice insurance. It's most likely not their fault. It does, however, suck. I did manage to browbeat them into fitting me in yesterday.

I'm really annoyed at the Polyclinic. My insurance does not require me to have a primary care physician -- I can see whoever I want, as long as they're covered within the plan -- but the clinic itself does. I've been hunting around for a new doctor ever since My Favorite Doctor retired, but as soon as I made the mistake of seeing the same doctor twice, they "established" her as my primary care physician, and now make it difficult for me to see anybody else. And I don't *like* this doctor. She doesn't listen to me. When I try to talk to her, she starts edging toward the door. She *hurts* me -- little hurts, but she's not gentle with that damn tongue depressor, and my throat is now *much* more sore than it was when I started the day. And yesterday, she insisted that for my cold, I must take pseudoephedrine, even if it *does* make me hallucinate, give me insomnia, completely remove my appetite, and give me all sorts of other unpleasant side-effects. What kind of doctor ignores my own experience about how my body interacts with a given chemical? (of course, finding a decongestant without it is a lot harder now that the FDA pulled phenylpropylalamine, which gives me some of the same unpleasant side-effects, but not the mania, or the hallucinations.) Sheesh. So, I'm in the market for a new doctor, and if the Polyclinic doesn't like it, I'll just find a doctor at another facility.

And as for dinner -- a whole delicious menu, complete with tasty wines that I chose. The sommelier at Whole Foods was extremely helpful; she made the wine-choosing a whole lot of fun, and she even emailed me tasting notes, afterward. The table looked beautiful. It was a real treat to celebrate the best five years of my life with some of my favorite people.

Posted by sev @ 10:20 AM PST |

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