The Forge

If you've seen the last two hours, please tell me; i've no idea where they went. And, frankly, i'm pissed off.

Those monitoring my status, via Twitter or Facebook or if you're lucky enough to see me on a daily basis--all of you--know that around Friday morning i began to feel a little under the weather. Our first attempt at intervisitation with our sister hall were muddled by the fact that i was sneezing and coughing quite a bit. By the time i was leaving for my bed you could hear the phlegm in my lungs threatening to drown me.

When Saturday found me no better off, i hiked over to the Zerbe medical center to tell them i might be, well--- a little sick. Through hacks i informed the woman at the desk that i was pretty sure i had a sinus infection. She handed me some phenylephrine, vitamin c pills, tylenol 325g, and some menthol/eucalyptus lozenges. Upon my insisting she also told me i'd have a 3:30 appointment on Tuesday.

I probably slept for five hours or so on Saturday. I was wiped, and by night time i was lying in bed with tissues in my nose (as is my custom for these situations). It was bad enough that had the others not consented to watching the movie in our room, i'd have missed out on all activities for the evening. I'm still not sure how i made it through the frisbee game--i was only in for like a minute but that was enough for my lungs--nor do i understand why i went to the street dance. But i did. Nevertheless, i felt like utter and complete crap.

Sunday i slept through "church" while the others ventured off to various corners of Grove City and its surrounding areas. Finally i decided it was time to get out of bed. A shower had me in better spirits, after which i cleaned up the trash that was everywhere and finally set my printer up. I imagine i took a nap at some point though i frankly don't recall.

Alright well, the point of all this is that it got around to shortly before 3:30 today (Tuesday) and i left for the medical center. Since there'd been no one in there on Saturday, i made the mistake of assuming Zerbe'd be fairly empty today. It was basically chock full. So i walked in and sat down at about 3:25.

At around 3:35 i noticed a few new arrivals coming over to the desk to sign in, so i walked over and did likewise. Mind you, this was the first doctor visit i've ever had in my life on which figuring out what to do was entirely up to me and (surprise!) there aren't exactly neon signs telling you what to do. So whatever, a few minutes were my fault.

At around 3:45 i figured i may as well ask if there were any papers that needed to be filled out. After all, i certainly didn't want to be held up because of something so simple. I needed to be at HAL by 4:00 for a seminar on the school's study abroad program, something i definitely didn't want to miss. Well, the woman asked who i was. Then she said to sign-in, which i'd done ten minutes before. Only now did she take my name and add it to what i would soon realize to be the BOTTOM of a very large pile. I texted my father to update him on this turn of events and expressed my concern over getting to the seminar on time.

At 4:25 i texted him again. "Still waiting." We figured by now i had license to complain. I'd been there for an hour without so much as an acknowledgement of my existence, and it was so dreadfully boring i'd almost fallen asleep a few times. On one particular instance i remember jolting back to alertness and simultaneously banging my head on the concrete wall behind me.

At 4:33 i had just asked a receptionist when my name might be called..."since i had a 3:30 appointment." Her response? "We schedule everyone around the sa...." she mumbled the rest and i didn't gather much except that she couldn't care less that i was over an hour late and that they'd clearly over-scheduled. "What was your name?...There's one ahead of you."

I looked around the room. Absent from it were several kids i'd watched come in after me, as well as most of the kids who'd arrive before.

At 4:47 i was finally called into the doctor's "exam room." Several minutes passed and a thin, aging man came in, glanced at my chart, and asked me how i was doing. "Well, i guess not the best. Cuz you know, if i were the best, i probably wouldn't be he--"

"Sinus problems?" he interrupted. I'd only been trying to jest with the guy but either he interpreted it as rude or else Mark Courtney PA C has no sense of humor. I explained in brief my past few days, how they'd drained me (but not drained all my snot) and how i had a history of sinus infections. He asked what i'd been taking--apparently the receptionist didn't put down any of the medications i'd been offered on my file. I told him nothing, because i'd tried what they gave me the first night and it'd done nothing. He asked what they--mind you, his own office--had given me, and i told him a generic sudafed that didn't contain enough active ingredient because kids were abusing the drugs.

He prodded my tongue with a depresser, looked in my eyes and ears, and told me i didn't have an infection. Had i had a fever? Well...no, just some aches for a few hours on Sunday. Apparently i can't have a sinus infection without fever, and so it definitely wasn't a sinus infection. Nevertheless he whipped out a new tongue depresser and searched once more, finding not more than earlier.

He wrote me a prescription for Claritin D under the diagnosis "allergy vs viral URI" which means little more to me than "i guess it could be an infection but maybe not so buy some drugs and if that doesn't work then i'll tell you to buy more drugs."

All told, the thing took over 2 hours. I missed my seminar, so i've no clue how GCC does study abroad. And, despite my weekend of blatant suffering and my absurd wait in the office holding room, there's nothing definitively wrong with me.

Oh JOY!

UPDATE: I arrived at my writing course (one of, i think, four required) moments after posting this. A bit scatterbrained, i forgot to check which room it was to be held in, and only by the sheerest of luck was the person i'd been speaking with a few hours before sitting across from the door; else i may have moved to another class in vain pursuit of the lecture. As i gazed around the room, still exasperated by my whole ordeal at Zerbe, i noticed that many of my peers had with them a copy of Stunk and White classic The Elements of Style. At that point i assumed she'd instructed us to bring the book in one of three reminder e-mails she sent in the past week, however as i am now checking my inbox it seems we were never actually instructed to do so. Nor, much to my dismay, were we outright informed that there would be a test on a portion of that book in today's class. Not that having brought my book would've been any help, seeing as i've not read any of it as of yet, but i wish i'd known. That said, the test was a brutal finale to the preceding three hours of joy and ecstasy, and i've finally failed a test in college. Go me!

To be fair, i'm sure i was warned about the test in some packet we got on our first day in class, so i don't really hold anyone but myself accountable. I do however still consider the exam to be a cherry on a very unpleasant sundae.