Not My Day

Poked and Prodded
NYC kicks my ass today

So, I thought my appointment with Dr. I was at 8:30 am. I head over via bus only to find that Shirley, his nurse, actually scheduled me for 3:30 pm! I swear I repeated the time to her. This has been the most frustrating series of communication glitches with my doctor's office. I could never connect on Tuesday with them and Shirley's voicemail was full. Wednesday I left a message, she said she called in a prescription yet nothing was at the pharmacy. Blah, blah, blah.

Now I'm over at Mt. Sinai with no appointment until the afternoon. I decided to go the the ER and try to track down my lost health insurance card. They sent be back to the main building where the security guards looked at the log but couldn't tell what had been turned in. They sent me to the security building at 13 E 101st where a guard looked but thought it might be better to check with the cashier's office ... back at the same building I was in. So I head back but the cashier's office doesn't open until 9am and I was feeling less than healthy and wanted to be home in a hot shower.

I'm heading home and notice the crosstown M96 heading down to the stop near 5th Ave. so I have to run to catch it. Great gasps, I can't really catch my breath! This thing makes me feel like I'm a pack-a-day smoker! Thank goodness I never did smoke or this could be worse. I get off on Columbus and search my pocket for my Metrocard ... not where I thought it was ... here comes the bus ... not in that pocket ... not in my purse ... DAMN, it must have fallen out of my pocket on the M96. $9.50 lost but worse, now I have to walk home, 17 short blocks - just under a mile. I don't have cab fare, it's cold and grey, hope it doesn't rain. Now I'm emotional. I call my sister and start crying. I'm such a baby when I'm sick. And obviously I can't think clearly because cabs now take credit cards - didn't think about that until I got home. But boy did my hot shower and warm bed feel super comfy after such a crappy morning.

For my afternoon appointment, I decided to take a cab. Of course the cabbie pulled a bone-headed move and turned east on 93rd during school-let-out so we spent a good 8 minutes going two blocks. Why th %^&* do parents drive to pick up their kids in Manhattan? Lazy, spoiled rich kids and their limos and parents sitting there idling thus gassing their own kids - pathetic! Another reason I love my friend who walks or bikes her kids from the UES to the UWS through beautiful Central Park to get her kids to school when her more snooty neighbors use chauffeurs to shuttle their kids a mere few blocks! Crazy.

Got to my appointment and didn't have to wait too long. Dr. I said the diagnosis wasn't pneumonia but allergic bronchial aspergillus or ABPA. I need to be on a longer course of Avelox along with some prednisone to try to reduce the inflammation. So now I have some new thing to look up on the web and freak out about. Anytime I start digging around the web, I find myself reading up on the craziest and worst things. A tumor, sarcoidosis, freaky genetic disorders, something that was sure to give me palsy or facial ticks - it is a hypochondriacs nightmare out there.

I must be one weird patient. I'm sure the ER staff was trying to figure all my symptoms out. Still more testing for conditions so they drew more blood. Amazing stuff, blood, and all the information it carries around. Unfortunately sometimes my veins don't cooperate and it takes awhile to get one that works, thus the collection of band-aids above. She actually decided to use a child's needle so it took awhile to fill all those vials. Starting to have junkie arms.

Back home. Hope napping will take me someplace happy.