Much much better

[beowabbit]

Just wanted to let folks know I’m doing much, much better today. I think the sciatica is gone and all the (considerable) aches I have left are muscular side-effects of that. I felt groggy and crummy all day yesterday and am pretty sure I had a fever and slept about 18 out of 24 hours, but that unpleasantness (except for the sleeping; sleeping was very pleasant!) seems to be behind me too. And plumtreeblossom’s coming over to remind me other humans exist tonight, and cathijosephine’s going to meet us for The Best Pastrami Sandwiches East of the International Date Line and West of Kiribati, and I'm alert and functional and awake enough to be working usefully from home today, so life is pretty good.

By the way, “You need to see a doctor immediately” is not a very helpful comment unless it’s accompanied by contact information for a doctor I can get to who is free or whom my insurance will reimburse me for even without them being my PCP or me having a referral, or instructions on how to get an immediate appointment from my highly overbooked doctor or nurse practitioner or the other doctors in his group without pointing a gun at the receptionists. I love my doctor and he’s responsible for my sleep apnea and hormonal problems being diagnosed and treated, but he’s very hard to schedule with and the place he works is kind of disorganized and claims not to have emergency appointments (I’ve tried in the past). And this was clearly (in retrospect) not an ER thing (although maybe if I’d gone to the ER they would have given me some nice muscle relaxants and analgesics that would have made Monday less unpleasant). I do appreciate everybody’s care and concern, though!

Comments

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you are feeling better.

Here are two other options to explore if you have any more semi-emergency situations: 1) urgent care and 2) calling your health plan.

An urgent care practice is somewhere in between your Dr and the ER. I've used them for things like ear aches, where I obviously didn't need to go to the ER but I wasn't going to be able to wait for my Dr's office to get me an appt. They were able to prescribe all of the necessary drugs to fix the infection.

Your health care plan might also have a nurse practioner line. The NPs are pretty good sorting out what level of care you need. They might also be able to find you an urgent care practice.

[beowabbit]

Ooh, thank you; this is very useful! I think my health plan does have an NP line!

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that I can be helpful! I think most health plans have an NP line, but most people don't even know they exist. When I was a NU student, it was very helpful, since the clinic kept such weird hours. It was the easiest way to sort out whether I needed to go to the clinic or the ER or what.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

An urgent care practice is what I meant by "a doc in a box." There are free-standing clinics that take walk-in patients for life's minor emergencies (the ones that need to be seen TODAY but that aren't ER-level). Because they tend to be self-contained and easily accessible, somebody christened them "doc in a box," and this phrase tends to be used frequently in the media.