What should I do?
So DM has been sick for two weeks. It could be the flu or it could be a cold. It started out with a sore throat, chills and low fever. Then the chills and fever went away and it turned into a bad cough and fatigue and body aches. He had a seasonal flu vaccine a couple weeks before but according to several sources, the only flu here is the swine flu. A friend of mine was actually tested and she does have swine flu. She is a lot sicker than DM has been. High fever, bad cough, sore throat and all the intestinal things that go with some cases of swine flu.
I have not been sick yet. But I woke up with a sore throat this morning. I do NOT want to get sick. Normally I don't really care. Obviously I don't like it and it always lasts an eternity for me- at least two weeks whenever I get a cold or flu- BUT on Monday I have to fly to Dallas at 6:00 am, do a photo shoot and fly back at 10:00pm and I really don't want to be deathly ill for that. I don't have a doctor here so I called DM's doctor who couldn't see me until January. Ummmmm, yea, I hope I'll be better THREE MONTHS from now. So I tracked down some urgent care centers- I just wanted to get a prescription for Tamiflu. I went to one who didn't take my insurance. I went to another one where the doctor had just gone to lunch and there were people ahead of me and the wait would be at least two hours. Finally I went to a third who did take my insurance and only made me wait 45 minutes to be seen, then another 45 minutes once they did a strep test and the doctor dealt with other patients. Ultimately I came away with a prescription for Tamiflu. Why you can't just get it over the counter, I don't know.
The doctor said that they usually only give it to people who have been sick a day or two and are sicker than me. OK. Ummmmmmmm. I've been sick less than half a day, shouldn't it work for me? And what't the point if you're already sick? Then he said it doesn't get rid of it, it only shortens it- on average from 8 days to 6 and a half. Hardly seems worth it and won't help me with my need to be well by Monday. Still, it is prescribed for people who are around sick people and don't want to get sick, as a preventative. So why won't it work on me? I'm only a little bit sick!
There are some unpleasant side effects and it's about $80 so I haven't gone to get it yet. I'm still trying to decide if (a) I'm really sick (b) I really have the flu (the doc said DM may only have a cold. If he doesn't have a high fever it's probably not swine flu and swine flu is all there is flu-wise) (c) if I want to deal with side effects and the lightening of my wallet by $80 if it's not even going to work or work in time.
So, what should I do?
I have not been sick yet. But I woke up with a sore throat this morning. I do NOT want to get sick. Normally I don't really care. Obviously I don't like it and it always lasts an eternity for me- at least two weeks whenever I get a cold or flu- BUT on Monday I have to fly to Dallas at 6:00 am, do a photo shoot and fly back at 10:00pm and I really don't want to be deathly ill for that. I don't have a doctor here so I called DM's doctor who couldn't see me until January. Ummmmm, yea, I hope I'll be better THREE MONTHS from now. So I tracked down some urgent care centers- I just wanted to get a prescription for Tamiflu. I went to one who didn't take my insurance. I went to another one where the doctor had just gone to lunch and there were people ahead of me and the wait would be at least two hours. Finally I went to a third who did take my insurance and only made me wait 45 minutes to be seen, then another 45 minutes once they did a strep test and the doctor dealt with other patients. Ultimately I came away with a prescription for Tamiflu. Why you can't just get it over the counter, I don't know.
The doctor said that they usually only give it to people who have been sick a day or two and are sicker than me. OK. Ummmmmmmm. I've been sick less than half a day, shouldn't it work for me? And what't the point if you're already sick? Then he said it doesn't get rid of it, it only shortens it- on average from 8 days to 6 and a half. Hardly seems worth it and won't help me with my need to be well by Monday. Still, it is prescribed for people who are around sick people and don't want to get sick, as a preventative. So why won't it work on me? I'm only a little bit sick!
There are some unpleasant side effects and it's about $80 so I haven't gone to get it yet. I'm still trying to decide if (a) I'm really sick (b) I really have the flu (the doc said DM may only have a cold. If he doesn't have a high fever it's probably not swine flu and swine flu is all there is flu-wise) (c) if I want to deal with side effects and the lightening of my wallet by $80 if it's not even going to work or work in time.
So, what should I do?