I'm So Stupid

I thought I would go to the doctor.

Anyone who knows me knows that a statement such as the above means that I have been pretty damn sick.

I'm home for a session (church council) meeting tonight and an interview tomorrow so I thought, this being Day 21 of The Crud, I would make an appointment to have the doctor take a look at my clearly-full-of-something ears. I explained to the woman making the appointment that it would be a 2.5 hour drive for me and that I might well be late. No-o-o- problem she said.

Well, I was late, half an hour late. I decided not to call because the last time I went to the doctor, I had to wait nearly an hour in a waiting room crammed with other delayed patients. I didn't think my thirty minutes would amount to much.

The doctor had left. ALL the primary care docs had left by 2:15 in the afternoon!

Another antibitoic would probably help but is also probably unnecessary. I thought about going to urgent care and waiting around an hour or two. The hell with it. I went to the drugstore and bought decongestants.

I have two friends whose elderly parents have in the past week been literally, literally and physically, beaten up in the name of medical care and faced (in one case) and is facing (in the other) horrific departures from this life instead of the peaceful transition that might have been theirs had no one medically trained been around when they stopped breathing.

Can't get a five-minute look-see. Can't get an ethical and dignified approach to end-of-life care.

My city's economy is hugely dependent upon two major hospital systems. Go figure.