I was there because I was sick.
Nothing serious. Well not REAL serious, but it could be.
I have had a cold for about a week. More of a nuisance than anything. Vitamin C and chicken soup put a dent in it but didn't knock it out.
Last night I woke up at 2AM with an earache. Sharp, stabbing pain. After a few minutes it appeared it was not going away so I took 2 Tylenol.
About an hour later I went back to sleep without incident.
When I woke up, only a dull pain and fluid in both ears but more prevalent in the "sick" ear. So I went for a doctor visit.
When I arrived Helga wanted to know if I had been there before and how long since my last visit.
I don't know. Maybe 4 or 5 months ago.
"Here, fill this out and wait on us to call your name".
I can understand why they want to know if I am taking any new medications, or if I had any other medical issues since my last . . . visit. But I did wonder why the form needed my gender and race. Do those things change?
For a moment I considered indicating I was a black female but Helga didn't seem like she was in a jovial mood, so I marked white male.
About 20 minutes later I was called in for my visit. After checking my height and weight we agreed that I probably had too much turkey last week but I was not going to get any taller.
Although the form didn't ask and we didn't talk about it, I probably won't get any more hair and if I did it won't be the factory issue color.
A few minutes in to my visit, the doc took a few notes, looked in my ear and said "You aren't kidding. This is a classic ear infection. Red, bulging ear drum. I wish I had a medical student here to show them. You did the right thing to come in today. If you had waited much longer you would have had a bigger problem".
Well, I was glad he didn't have a student around. I just wanted something to make me well so I could go back home and crawl in bed.
He wrote out a prescription and sent me on my way. I walked out of the office without paying anything. Same at the pharmacy.
"No charge today Mr. Vineyard".
We have a high deductible plan coupled with an HRA to pay a significant portion of our bills.
Still, the trip to the doc and pharmacy was painless, at least from a cash perspective.
Kind of like free health care.
For a moment I felt like a Democrat.