Continuing stupidity at the doctor’s office
Date: Tue Mar 18 09:23:15 PST 2003
Location: home
Music: Concrete Blonde – Mexican Moon (drowning out the dogs barking next door)
Mood: crappy
The anitbiotics (cephalexin) that I was on for two weeks DIDN’T DO SHIT.
For the bump anyway.
The only thing they did was give me a southern hemisphere infection.
This past weekend, the bump grew larger and more painful again.
Last week it had come to a head and a pinhole opened up to drain very
slightly, but then it closed again. One side of the bump grew red, infected
and hardened. The other side of the bump was soft and gooey – probably filled
with pus inside. But it never popped as it were.
Also over the weekend, the bump separated and grew into a second bump up
into my breast, which of course added to the pain.
I called my doctor yesterday and was told they’re working on my referral
and that they’d call me back. They never did.
Last night, the bump that had separated and grew into a second bump up
into my breast got larger. I got home and took a Tylenol 3 after hours
of whimpering and barely being able to move without grating pain at work.
This morning I called the doctor again.
“What can I do for you?” said the doctor assistant.
“Um, you guys never called me back yesterday”, I said.
“What did you need?” asked the assistant.
[SIGH] “The bump grew larger over the weekend. The antibiotics never
helped. I’m on Tylenol 3 for the pain. I need to speak to the doctor”,
I said impatiently.
“Hold on, I’ll be right back”, said the doctor assistant.
[a minute later]
“What’s your phone number?” asked the assistant.
[gave phone number]
“So, what do you want then? What action do you want to take?”,
asked the assistant.
[SIGH] “I want to speak to the doctor.”
“Ok, I’ll have her call you back.”
And that was that.
Mother*!?$*?!.
Now, I could just go into the office, but it’s another $10 office fee
and at least an hour wait, and I’m at my wits end. I swear, I’m about
to perform surgery on myself.
Catching up now from last Friday…
My bf and I drove up to Tahoe in a rented Chevy Impala to go see my
dad and his wife, and also to see the Illustrious Zerby.
We had a great weekend hanging out with everyone. On Saturday, my dad,
his wife, my bf and I piled into their SUV and drove around the entire
Lake Tahoe after a failed attempt at hiking down to Vikingsholm.
On top of Vikingsholm being closed to tours for the winter, a storm blew
in the moment we got to the parking lot at the top of the mountain above
Vikingsholm, pelting us with hail, snow and 50MPH winds.
We got back into the car and drove about a mile down the road and *POOF*
it was sunny and not snowing.
That day, South Lake Tahoe in the hills and mountains got at least six
inches of snow, while at town level there was sun and some wind.
We checked out Sierra at Tahoe ski area after our drive around the lake
and that’s how we found out about the snow levels.
Saturday night is when my bf and I hung out with Zerby, his gf Shani,
and Shani’s two kids, Dana and Wesley, who are about 7 and 5 respectively
if I remember correctly. Those two kids are so cute and well behaved and
soft-spoken like their mom!
We all went to the casinos and hunted out the arcades.
Well, now I know where the entire population of Tahoe’s children, as well
as all the spawn who are dragged along from all over the world by their
gambling parents, end up on the weekends… in the arcades of the casinos.
And as young as ten, the kids are cruising for boyfriends and girlfriends.
Despite that, we had a pretty good time in the arcades. I didn’t see anything
I wanted to play, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching Zerby not only kick a
teenage boy’s ass at Dance Dance Revolution (DDR, which I’d rather not say
cuz it reminds me of Eastern Bloc), but I stood back and watched the crowd
that formed around Zerby as he pounded on the damned game and spun around
and kept his footing and generally pissed off the teens who thought he was
just an old man (we’re all old people after age 19).
I used most of my coins to power race car driver games and children’s
arcade games for Dana and Wesley, and I instinctively took over as their
babysitter and didn’t mind. Shani thanked me for it several times, smiling
and saying she got to play a couple of games herself as a result.
Too bad I didn’t have my camera on me – Wesley played on the motorcycle
arcade game and Zerby held onto the back of the bike to move it back and
forth to help steer for Wes, who crouched down and really got into it!
And he’s only five! So cute.
On Sunday, my bf, my dad and his wife all returned to Sierra at Tahoe ski
area, where we split up to go snow tubing while my dad and his wife prepared
to go skiing. My dad’s wife had this awesome snow suit on – it looked like
a NASA flight suit, only grey. Pretty cool.
My bf and I got about three or four good runs in down the hill on our
tubes before the storm rolled in, and we realized it was time to start
heading home.
My dad and his wife never got any skiing in, citing how pricey and sucky
Sierra at Tahoe was compared to Heavenly, where they usually go.
Plus, the visibility dwindled so fast, they’d have gotten on the chair lift
and it would have been futile.
So we said our goodbyes until next year, and dad followed us out of Sierra
at Tahoe. He turned right towards South Lake and we turned left towards
home.
I was kinda saddened. I had wanted to get trapped in Tahoe by the snow
to avoid having to come back to the pitiful job I have, which will be
gone by June or July.
And I always get a bit teary eyed when I part ways from my dad. He’s
getting older every year – this year I noticed he has no brown or red in
his hair on his head anymore. It’s all grey, and the lines in his face
are getting deeper. His hands and arms are still furry Scotsman red and
freckely though. And his wife takes good care of him, so I know I don’t
need to worry. It’s just the realization that my parents are going to
die on me, that hits me every time I see them now. You don’t think about
that when you’re a teenager. You start seeing it in your late 20’s to
early 30’s.
It was especially painful when I went to Michigan in 2001 to see my mom,
and the skin on her body was so thin…when I kissed her cheek it was
like kissing my grandma. Because my mom doesn’t take care of herself
and smokes a pack a day and never goes to the doctor for routine checkups.
Whereas my dad quit smoking and gets a physical *twice* a year and takes
all his heart and stress meds and leads an active athletic life by
downhill skiing, roller blading and walking.
I take after my dad usually.
But this lump under my breast has me feeling more like my mom for the
last few weeks.