Does this make me high maintenance?

I made it to work today, for all over 1.5 hours. Walking across the building to go chat with a supervisor let me breathless. So off to the doc-in-a-box we go. (Grilltech was being thoughtful and drove me. I think it has something to do with he didn’t want me to come get him this afternoon.) Anyway, we get there and they ask all the usual questions. What are we seeing you for? I’ve got the crud. Explain. It feels like someone is sitting on my chest, my throat hurts, and my head hurts. Your chest hurts? Yes. At this point in time, anything else I say is brushed aside, with the “OMG, your having a heart attack.” They check my oxygen levels, a bit low. The doctor comes in and listens to my breathing. It’s clear. He leaves and the nurse comes back with the doctor wants you to have an EKG. I don’t need one, it’s not my heart, it’s a cold. You should have one, because you might be wrong. Fine. (You know the fine, I’m talking about.) Sure enough it’s normal. Nurse comes back; the doctor wants you to have a chest X-ray. NO. Uhh Okay.

At this point, I’m crying because I don’t feel well and I’m frustrated because they’re not listening. I was thinking about walking out the door, but didn’t because it would have been counterproductive. Doctor comes back, while I’m crying. Lovely. He tries to talk me into a chest X-ray. I’m not buying it. (Grilltech pointed out, it would prove its bronchus or something else. I still didn’t buy it.) I told the doctor, I troubleshoot computers. I understand what you’re doing, you’re trying to figure out what’s wrong. But your not listening to what I’m saying. You’ve gone completely down a path that was unrelated and I’m frustrated. (I hate the shotgun method of troubleshooting, and that's what the doctor was doing.)

So he checks me out. Sure enough, sinus infection. (Three weeks of sinus headaches, should have came in sooner, okay so I'm a dumbass.) He still thinks I need a chest X-ray. Fine, if the medication doesn’t work by Monday I’ll have the X-ray done. He’s unhappy because it could be a blood clot in the lungs and that’s life threatening. At the end, he’s telling me how frustrated he gets because people don’t listen to him. I understand that, high maintenance people come in and demand to be taken care of. (Hey, he’s talking about me….)

I’m home with antibiotics, Mucinex, nose spray and my knitting. Gosh, hope I feel better before Monday.

4 comments:

Red said...

Hope you feel better soon.

And you're not high maintenance. You're making sure that you're being heard.

Lovs2Knit said...

Nope, not high maintenance! Damn doctors never want to listen to what you have to say.

Hope you start feeling better soon.

Heather said...

No that does not make you high maintenance, it makes you the expert on your own body. You know after living this long what feels wrong.

Amy Lane said...

That makes you damned smart and in charge of your destiny, that's what it makes you!! I hope you feel better soon!