First, anyone who is against "socialized medicine" in the USA can't possibly be satisfied with the current privatized situation...unless they're employed by a health insurance company. The DH and I have craptacular insurance of a sort from his last job, and right now we're paying out the ass on COBRA.
The doctor listed on our medical cards, whom we'd never seen before since we had to switch doctors when we got our current "insurance"? He doesn't take our insurance. Wha..?! Yeah. So after a round robin of phone calls, cussing, stomping around the house while on hold, and trying to find a backup in the form of an urgent care center online in case we continue to sit on hold with the damn insurance company, we find another doctor for me to go see.
Getting to the doctor's office was an adventure when it shouldn't have been. I didn't drive because, well, I valued my dizzy little life and those around me. The street numbering in the area we went to wasn't very clear; it looked like the address we were looking for were on both sides of the street at first. Is this what happens when you get old...you get confused by street numbering? If so, this sucks WAY more than getting wrinkles. WAYYYYYYYYY more.
After filling out the paperwork at the doctor's office and trying to explain to the receptionist that just because there's a different doctor's name on the medical card didn't mean that the doctor would take me as a patient. That was eventually sorted out, and I sat miserable, dizzy and suffering from motion sickness for another fifteen minutes.
Then I was taken back to an exam room and sat for another fifteen minutes. With no reading material. BORRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGG. Finally, the doctor got around to seeing my sick self.
The doctor himself was very nice, and after asking me some basic questions, he had me doing a few silly coordination exercises. He finally gets to the nitty-gritty by looking at my ears, and pronounces that one of my ears is congested, and is most likely the cause of my dizziness.
The good: he prescribes some anti-vertigo medication and Sudafed, and says to come back in a week if those don't work.
The bad: I wish I had done this last week when this first happened so that I could've skated better for Ri-Ettes tryouts last Saturday.
The hilarious: of course roller derby came up along the line in our conversation(a blow to the head could've caused this, perhaps?), and it turns out that the doctor is very interested in coming to see the Derby Dolls. He even watched derby as a kid growing up in the Philippines. I started laughing like an idiot. He was perplexed by this. I tried to explain how derby has pretty much infected ALL of my life; it's now impossible to have a conversation without it being brought up. He didn't really understand, but he says he might bring his wife to one of our games. So funny!
The realization: I had a team practice with Fight Crew last night. At first I wasn't sure if I should go, but I decided that I must. About halfway through, I realized that I'm still really mentally burnt out from last season's Ri-Ettes activities. I may not agree with how I wasn't chosen for this year's roster, but I do agree that it's probably for the best at this point that I don't have to worry about making the ten million extra practices needed for the team to be in some sort of functioning order for their first game of the season in less than two weeks.
What I'll miss more than anything is the chance to skate more interleague games. Especially with no Aftershockers option this season. But I'll have to find a way to deal with that, and make sure that this "extra" time I now have is used somewhat productively. As soon as my ear settles down, I'll be able to focus more betterer on making stuff happen for ME this year.
3 comments:
Glad you got checked out. Didn't want to say anything in the last comment section, because a fucking stranger telling you to see a doctor? Like you hadn't thought of that... would have been insufferable. Still nice to hear. And the "you time" is good too.
Not a big fan of the social health care system right now either. I mean, I'm glad for it, but god it's demoralizing. I go for relatively minor psych care, just off-brand xanax for panic attacks, but that doesn't change fairly regular accusations of drug-seeking behavior. Because with everything they have back there, I'm just desperate to get my "xan on, man." Oy.
We may moan about the National Health Service in the UK but it really is pretty amazing.
Be well. Skate safely. And be loud and obnoxious!
Sandra.. Don't you have union coverage thru Bento Box? You were there for months.. should have plenty of hours,no?
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