Unforeseen Consequences

Interesting time at the medical center this morning.

I almost cancelled the doctor’s appointment because, after I had that sick spell a few weeks ago – diagnosed as influenza, I didn’t think there was much she could do about the tiredness, dizzy spells and labored breathing causing me to temporarily retire from 5Ks, but I kept the appointment.

Arriving at the medical center, driving around for 20 minutes looking for parking, I finally arrived at the check-in desk only to find complete chaos.

All the computers were down.

No one could check in.

Co-pays could not be collected.

The lines were long with those seeking urgent care.

Staff was doing the best it could to organize the chaos and ended up directing those with no appointments seeking urgent care to another location. Those of us with appointments, staff wrote our names, doctor we were to see and medical number down on paper, said we’ll be billed for copay, then called our doctor to say we’d arrived.

Once I made it to the doctor, since the computers were down, she had no access to my records, but upon physical inspection discovered, contrary to what I've sometimes been accused of not having, I do have a heart and it didn’t appear to show signs of a heart attack or stroke. Much as I thought she’d say, she does think the tiredness and difficulty breathing has something to do with high cholesterol and suggested I give the medication she’d suggested a go to clear the walls, plus baby aspirin to thin the blood flowing through.

I’ll try baby aspirin, see how it goes, before resorting to cholesterol drugs.

The fact that I’ve been getting dizzy, unsteady on my feet, she found equilibrium related because I have an ear infection.

How have I been walking around for two/three months with an ear infection without knowing, you ask?

Unforeseen consequences.

When I was about three years old – and its an image from my childhood I can clearly see these many years later, my mom, my aunt, other relatives were sitting around in the living room. I was eating an orange, plucked the seeds out and thought it would be a good idea to stick the seeds in my left ear. Once the seeds were in, I stuck my little fat fingers in to dig them out, only the seeds went further in.

Fast forward to adults in the room going into full blown panic when they became aware of what I’d done, followed by ear surgery, followed by growing up deaf in that ear, followed by intermittent ear aches I simply ride out until the ache goes away.

Only this time, the ache turned into an infection for which the doctor prescribed antibiotics.

With the computers down, she had to give me an old-fashioned prescription on a pad, which the pharmacy could not fill because ... you know, the computers were down.

On tap for tomorrow is heading back, when computers are restored, to get the prescription filled.

Chit chatting a few years back with a woman I worked for, talking about dumb things we did as kids that impacted our adulthood, I told her that story about the orange seeds in the ear. Evidently, it’s not uncommon for kids to put things in their ears because she said her daughter had done the same thing, only she’d shoved tiny gravel rocks in hers.

Yikes!