Sunday, March 6, 2011

Maybe he just hides it really well

It turns out I didn't get better from when I was sick. Instead, my sickness went dormant and then returned yesterday hard and fast. Except I have been having a really hard time breathing. There's this gaspy wheezey thing going on that makes me sound like a 75 year-old man whose been smoking since before the Vietnam War. At one point Josh even looked over at me, smiled, and nodded, "Se-xy!" But laughing made me choke and then he felt bad.

Josh told me to call Doug, to see if he could suggest anything that'd completely knock this out of my system. It took me two hours to work up the nerve. I mean, it was Saturday. On a weekend. Without an appointment. Nobody wants to make their doctor angry. What if he kills you with all his doctorly ways? Josh had given me Doug's cell number, but I couldn't bring myself to use it. Finally I called the office when Josh wasn't looking.

I got some sort of doctor answering service. Told the lady my name and that "I'm having trouble breathing." She told me if I was having an emergency, I should go to the hospital. I told her it wasn't that bad. You could feel her frowning through the phone. Doug called back less than 10 minutes later. I apologized for bothering him on the weekend and thanked him for responding so fast. While I coughed and wheezed through our talk, Josh hovered nearby.

Doug said he was calling the drugstore to order me an inhaler. I told him again I was sorry for interrupting his weekend, but he assured me it was okay. I'm not convinced he's not secretly hating me now. The drugstore delivered my inhaler, and I spent most of the day watching Secret Diary of a Call Girl via Netflix. My lungs are eight miles wide now, and I'm not choking on the air being breathed in anymore.

4 comments:

Lil'Sis said...

I'm sure Doug isn't mad or upset, it's what doctors do, all the time. Good thing you called, it's less expensive and hassle free to take care of illness on the front end before it gets worse and you actually must go to the ER. Hope you're feeling better soon.

OTRgirl said...

Being married to a doctor, he's never been mad when a patient has called him. Even when it was a 45-minute call that was really more about the patient being afraid than about any real physical issue. Doug doesn't hate you.

I'm glad you called him and very glad you're feeling better!

Yankee, Transferred said...

I feel certain it didn't make him mad. Hell, I make about 1/10th what a doctor makes, and I take work calls on the weekend. It goes with the territory on some jobs.

Alisha said...

Ditto to what they all said. Doctors in private practices who really want a vacation or a weekend off generally get another doc in the practice to cover for them, and then the answering service calls that person instead. If he called you back it probably means he was "on call". Besides, not being able to breath well is NOT one of these minor complaints about which any good health care professional would say, "Oh, that could've waited 'til Monday." Glad you're feeling better!