Last Wednesday I went to the NYU nurse triage hoping to see a doctor. My symptoms were: soreness of the body, neck/head pain, slight diarrhea, isolated stomach pains, and dizziness.
APPARENTLY THATS NOT AN EMERGENCY...So she said if I got worse, just to make an appointment, or that she could make an appointment at that moment for the next day, but that my case wasn't as severe as say, someone with a cold. The next day was nonsense. I literally didn't eat anything because I didn't want to have to miss work. I actually felt BETTER when I didn't eat, so I figured the NYU nurse had to be wrong.
I woke up in the middle of the night with severe stomach pains at multiple times and i knew that much more that I should have been considered an "emergent case" from the beginning. Had I know...
On Friday I skipped out work because my diarrhea started to become bloody. I drove all the way home, and got a speeding ticket on the Palisades Parkway. I couldn't help but cry when the officer gave me the ticket, because of my immense pain and lack of ability to talk. I was going 77 in a 50. My problems with that bottle speed 50 has ALWAYS been a pain, but if someone has diarrhea I think there should be leeway, especially because I was actually getting out of the way of someone in the left lane, already moved to the right, when the guy on the left was about to pass me. At that very moment the cop decided I was the lucky winner to be pulled over, GREAT. He didn't say much, he didn't even tell me what he was asking my license and registration for until he gave it back.
What nonsense is this?
So I kept driving home to make my appointment on time, despite the pain in my tummy (i don't say stomach, because its really just an intestine-ache isnt it?)
I got there, the doctor feels my stomach..."Oh...you have a bacterial infection,"
"...a what?"
"bacterial infection..."
"a WHAT?"
"Yes, it's in your intestines"
"all this time???"
"Yes, I guess its been getting worse all week, I'm glad you came home to see us"
OH GREAT. So then the doctor takes a RECTAL SWAB (a very AWKWARDLY painful thing) and can't find anything the first time, nor the second time. And by the third time she tried to move it around and eeehh, NOTHING. My butt is CLEAN.
Then she asks me if I can produce a sample on the spot, and I definitely couldn't because I hadn't eaten all day in the anticipation of driving home by myself for the first time...
"Okay, so I'm going to have to ask you to eat something and produce a sample. The labs are closed already today because its late Friday already! But what you can do is try to go within the next 5 minutes and deliver it to the Monroe facility."
"I don't think I can do that...."
**goes home**
So I ate one bit of a saltine cracker and BAM I go running to the bathroom. How perfect. But After I went into a cup I had to spoon it into three tubes...PERFECT...
DONE and DONE. Then I have my Grandma telling me not to eat certain things and trying to give me all sorts of Chinese goodness, and I'm thinking...if something goes furtherly wrong...I won't be able to identify what Chinese goodness I've taken...so No.
My Grandma, though, is a VERY insistent woman. Nonstop all weekend --DONT EAT THAT GARBAGE! hahahha. I kind of listen, but at the same time I try to tell her every time no matter what I eat, I will be in pain shortly after, and then it will come out.
Anyway...the story gets worse.
Today I expected my cultures in the lab to be analyzed, but no no no, why would they do it when they ACTUALLY receive it? Oh no, why would they do it within three days of when they actually receive it? NOPE.
Wouldn't it make sense to PLATE the cultures when you get them? Its really not that difficult. REALLY, ITS NOT. So Saturday when I dropped them off, why weren't they taken care of?
It gets worse, why couldn't it be taken care of YESTERDAY, when the lab was open? Oh, they only plate on Tuesday-Thursday. How silly is that.
So now, I'm at home suffering, remembering that maybe one day I'll want to read about the nonsense I've gone through, essentially a censored diary.
My doctor prescribed me antibiotics, but there's a reason why she didn't do it last week...its hard to say which bacteria is inside you hurting you. So soon enough I'll be on antibiotics and prescribed pain medication.
YEY!
