The Swine Flu

I finally sucked it up and went to the doctor two days ago. Turns out, I definitely had the swine flu. And because I didn't go to the doctor, or maybe just because I'm in the prime age group for complications, I developed a pretty nasty case of bronchitis. My doctor was sure it was pneumonia when she listened to my lungs (I also managed to cough a bunch when she had the stethoscope to my back, so she got to hear the full loveliness of it) but the chest x-ray showed that it wasn't quite that bad yet, but pretty close. I figured the doctor and nurses would give me a hard time about waiting SO long to go to the doctor, but my doctor said it's better that I waited about the swine flu at home, rather than going out and contaminating everyone. But, had I waited longer, I almost definitely would have developed pneumonia, so I guess I timed it just right.

Anyways, swine flu sucks. Here's a timeline of my symptoms so you can see just what I've been going through.

November 7th (Saturday)- Start running a fever on my way home from work. Come home, take a nap, convince myself that I'm not sick and go hang out with friends anyways. Develop a sore throat during the evening. Throw up once during the night.
November 8th-11th- Fever and sore throat are pretty constant. Stay home from classes. Fever breaks sometime on Tuesday. Skip class on Wednesday just to be safe. Go to walk-in care, freak out about all the sick people, turn around go home.
November 12th-14th- Mild sore throat, Sinus pain. Business as usual though. Substitute taught Friday and worked in the evening. Worked Saturday as well. Coughing starts.
November 15-17th- Lots of coughing and lots of sinus congestion. Trying everything to make it better. Robitussin, Theraflu, Sudafed...
November 18th - Fever. Take a tylenol, go to sleep, and its gone within an hour. Nose is very, very runny though. Took a Clariten to help dry it up. Dries out my entire mouth and throat, and I barely sleep for needing to get up and get drinks.
November 19th - Intern in the kindergarten even though I'm feeling light headed. Made it through the whole day, and seminar afterwards. Went home and went directly to bed to rest up for the New Moon premiere. Feel slightly feverish.
November 20th - Wake up with a fever. Finally convince self that I need to call out of work and go see a doctor. 3 1/2 hours at walk-in care and I'm finally diagnosed with a prescription in hand.


Danny had to work on Friday, so I ended up going to walk-in care by myself. This is a pretty big acccomplish for me, because I hate going to the doctor, especially alone. And especially when I know it will be a long wait. The staff there was SO nice though. I watched Sabrina the Teenaged Witch in the waiting room, and one of the nurses' aids kept bringing us ginger ale and water. When I finally got a room and they made me put the gown thing on, they let me wrap up in a blanket so I didnt freeze. They were just really thoughtful and nice there, even though they were really really busy. I appreciate that when I'm sick.

I do not, however, appreciate the service I got when trying to fill my prescription! My doctor prescribed me Amoxicillin for the infection and Tussionex for my cough. I figured where I was going to have to wait for it, I'd fill it at Wal-Mart so I could talk to Danny at work while I was waiting. BIG MISTAKE. When I dropped off my prescription, the associate in there seemed to be confused by my insurance, but still told me to come back in half an hour and pick up my medicine anyways. So, half an hour of wandering around the store coughing and sniffling, I went back, and they asked for my insurance card again, and then came back and explained to me that my insurance was a "mail order pharmacy" insurance, and that I would have to either pay full price for my medicine or order them through the mail. Hello?! My mom has multiple prescriptions that she does NOT have to send away for. I don't have TIME to wait for my antibiotics - I have a serious case of bronchitis. And also, paying full price is not an option. I'm a college student. I don't have $100 for cough syrup right now. So I called my mom, bawling in the middle of Wal-Mart because I was exhausted, sick, and just wanted to go home, and she told me that I needed to go elsewhere. The associate tried to convince me to take some minor discount she could offer me, but I demanded that she give me my prescriptions and insurance card back, snatched them away from her, and stormed out of there. She's lucky I didn't punch her in the face for being so cold and inconsiderate.

So, I ended up taking my prescriptions over to Hannaford, which I should have done in the first place. They actually listened to me and took the time to look into what the real issue was. Turns out, my mom's business office at work didnt get my enrollment verification for school in, so I'm not able to use the insurance right now. The girl at WalMart had no idea what she was talking about. Hannaford's pharmacist was so helpful though. She set me up with this HealthySaver program that they run. You pay $7 a year, and you can get antibiotics for free. Definitely did that. There wasn't a lot she could do about the Tussionex though. It's expensive stuff. My full prescription of 120 ML would have be almost $90. However, she was able to give me 30 ML for $20. It's very, very strong cough syrup to be taken only as needed, so 30 ML is definitely enough. The maximum amount for me to take is 1 teaspoon, every 12 hours anyways, and it KNOCKS ME OUT, so I wont be taking it much longer. I need to be concious more than few hours a day. Yesterday, I slept from 11 pm-11am, and then 2:30pm-8:30pm. I've never slept so much in my life. My poor body is just so exhausted though.

My doctor promises me that I will be feeling better by Thanksgiving. Let's keep our fingers crossed!!!