Sunday, January 21, 2024

Time Well Spent

On Friday morning I developed some annoying medical symptoms. Over the course of the next 48 hours they got better and I thought I was out of the woods. However, this morning things came back with a vengeance. 

Of course the doctor's office was closed for the weekend. Tomorrow's forecast calls for freezing rain. If the forecast is right I will not leave the house, so I decided to make a visit to an urgent care today.

The hospital-affiliated urgent care I usually use is a half mile from the house, but is closed on Sundays. I checked the insurance plan website for other in-network options. The closest was a branch of a chain five miles away.

With so much flu/Covid/other crud floating around I figured it would take a while to get in and out of a clinic. However, it was easy to find a place to park in front of the building, and as I walked up to the office door I could see that none of the chairs placed against the outside window were occupied. I was hopefully optimistic my wait wouldn't be long.

But at the front desk the associate asked me if I had checked in online. When I told him I hadn't he added my name to the queue, indicated there were ten other people ahead of me, and said I would receive a text when I reached #2 in line (in approximately one hour). He suggested I go back home and wait for the text, but since my drive each way would take up half of that time I decided it wasn't worth it.

The temperature was just below freezing. I decided to get my steps in, so I bundled up and walked around the area, popping into the stores I passed to warm up.

The associate underestimated the wait; after 60 minutes I was sixth on the list and at 90 minutes I had only moved up one spot. I had to use the rest room so I headed back to the office.

After my business was taken care of I told the associate I was there and asked for the Wifi password. Ten minutes later, even though the wait list still said there were three people ahead of me the front desk associate called me up. I filled out paperwork, then went back to a room. 

In total I was in the room for a little over a half hour, but I thought that was fair since part of that time was waiting for them to run diagnostic tests. I left with a prescription for antibiotics. From start to finish I had lost two and a half hours of my day, but it was time well spent.

Five years ago: Life On Their Own Terms

16 comments:

  1. Glad you found a place open. Sounds like a well-kept secret! Remember to take PRObiotics opposite the time you take the ANTIbiotic. Unless you really love to chow down on tons of Greek yogurt. Helps your innards stay sane while the antibiotics try to make you gassy. Linda in Kansas

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  2. So glad you were taken care of -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com

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  3. So you're not going to tell us what the doctors guess was as to what was ailing you? I'm guessing the flu. That will be $30 please.

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    1. Even in the social media era a lady's gotta have some secrets :-)

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  4. Hope you're starting to feel better.

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  5. You are the clever one using that time wisely! I have never understood why urgent care facilities wouls close on a Sunday. People can still get sick or have a minor accident on Sundays! I was moving some debris in our yard and got a huge splinter stuck in the meaty part under my thumb on a Sunday. Try though I might I could not remove it. It had a good chunk of a two by four hanging off the end of it, about three feet long. We cut that part off, but it was imbedded really deep. We tried several places that weren't open and I decided to wait until the next day and go to my primary doctor. It did not fall under an emergency situation as far as I was concerned. Primary would not touch it and sent me to a hand surgeon downtown St. Paul. They could do nothing because I was "out of network" with my insurance. This was the ONLY hand surgeon in the area and I was referred. They would have done a nerve block, numbing my entire arm and remedied my situation quickly. I ended up in the Emergency Room that evening and the same hand surgeon removed it there using xylocaine that did not work well. Oh my goodness, his was long enough to make a blog post. all to say our medical system needs improvement!!

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  6. Quite the adventure -- I hope the antibiotics make you feel better soon!

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  7. Those urgent care clinics are always a crap shoot. You either hit it just right and have a short wait or it’s hours. Get well soon!

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  8. All medical establishments are different. Here, I can email our primary care doctor, she contacts the hospital's urgent care, then when I arrive they know me and the situation and I have very little time to even sit down.

    Terry had a similar situation last week. She sent him to urgent care for a chest x-ray. He was in and out and by the time he got home, she had read the x-ray and ordered a prescription which he then turned back around and picked up.

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