Saturday, September 06, 2014
'Kill 'em All!'
(2)
As we exited the ultrasound room, the ultrasound operator instructed me to 'Wait in the waiting room in a chair. They were deciding what to do next.' Instant alarm bells! I said, 'Do you think I'll be able to fight them off?' She seemed to understand exactly what I meant. 'I don't Know.' She said. I did know. (lessee... Kaiser... Friday evening... Weekend... Watchout!)
I defied the 'sitting' instructions and paced around instead. I waited about 15 minutes or so. A Kaiser doctor appeared and suggested that I go to a hospital Emergency Room (He named a couple) for treatment of a new DVT (which had been developing for at least two or three weeks (judging by the swelling leg).) He explained that I was in danger of the clot breaking free and traveling to my lungs, killing me. I doubted it, given the two or three weeks, and that I was already on Warfarin. This fucking clot was going nowhere! I told the good doc that I would 'risk it.' No way was I going to go, alone, to an emergency room, on the weekend, on such thin advice!
He was 'disappointed, of course, and did his best to convince me that I might be making a terminal mistake. Sip. He made several 'terrible faces' designed to convey to me that I was indeed making a terrible mistake. Sip. I was unimpressed. I left.
I don't remember whether I went to the Pharmacy that day... It might have been the previous day... I waited and waited and waited... I had been prescribed an antibiotic for my very first ever UTI! Wow! Ciprofloxacin. I finally got tired of waiting in a room full of sick people and went home. Kootch picked up the Cipro for me next day. Good girl!!
Meanwhile, I 'enjoyed' my UTI, peeing painfully one ounce at a time. I had been told by Kaiser that my pee test had indicated an unusually high level of white blood cells in my urine - but interestingly - not the reason for that. But I knew the reason: WBCs fight infections! I instructed those WBCs to 'Kill 'em all!'
As we exited the ultrasound room, the ultrasound operator instructed me to 'Wait in the waiting room in a chair. They were deciding what to do next.' Instant alarm bells! I said, 'Do you think I'll be able to fight them off?' She seemed to understand exactly what I meant. 'I don't Know.' She said. I did know. (lessee... Kaiser... Friday evening... Weekend... Watchout!)
I defied the 'sitting' instructions and paced around instead. I waited about 15 minutes or so. A Kaiser doctor appeared and suggested that I go to a hospital Emergency Room (He named a couple) for treatment of a new DVT (which had been developing for at least two or three weeks (judging by the swelling leg).) He explained that I was in danger of the clot breaking free and traveling to my lungs, killing me. I doubted it, given the two or three weeks, and that I was already on Warfarin. This fucking clot was going nowhere! I told the good doc that I would 'risk it.' No way was I going to go, alone, to an emergency room, on the weekend, on such thin advice!
He was 'disappointed, of course, and did his best to convince me that I might be making a terminal mistake. Sip. He made several 'terrible faces' designed to convey to me that I was indeed making a terrible mistake. Sip. I was unimpressed. I left.
I don't remember whether I went to the Pharmacy that day... It might have been the previous day... I waited and waited and waited... I had been prescribed an antibiotic for my very first ever UTI! Wow! Ciprofloxacin. I finally got tired of waiting in a room full of sick people and went home. Kootch picked up the Cipro for me next day. Good girl!!
Meanwhile, I 'enjoyed' my UTI, peeing painfully one ounce at a time. I had been told by Kaiser that my pee test had indicated an unusually high level of white blood cells in my urine - but interestingly - not the reason for that. But I knew the reason: WBCs fight infections! I instructed those WBCs to 'Kill 'em all!'
