I’ve got the whiz

Thursday after the kids went down for their naps, I just couldn’t make it anymore, so I went home. I asked the liaison to call the clinic and make an appointment for me. She texted me and got me an appointment for Friday at 10. Good. This is a clinic that Jake and Paul have both been to and both told me that they had people there who knew English. So I didn’t ask any Russian speaker to go with me. I walk to the bus, and don’t have to ride far. I go in, put the stupid plastic covers on my puts and go up to the reception. By this time, I’m not only sick, but tired from traveling to get there, so when the lady started speaking to me in Russian, I just stared at her like a deer in the headlights. 

I finally managed tohand over my ID and sign the forms they put in front of me. Then they literally led me to a doctor who also spoke no English. He looked in my nose, ears and throat, told me I had a viral infection , wrote something on a piece of paper and had someone lead to to the next room where there was another doctor who spoke no English. This lady listened to my lungs, all the time talking to me. She takes me to have blood drawn and talks to me. None of it is registering in my brain. Then she sits me down at the desk and starts explaining what the other doctor wrote on the piece of paper. None of this is registering in my brain. Finally I tried to ask if my friend could call later and ask about my diagnosis. 

But she misunderstood me and called somebody in another office named Dasha who spoke a minimum amount of English. The nice doctor tells Dasha a bunch of stuff and then hands me the phone. Poor Dasha is having to look up words as she’s going along but then she tells me the doctor says I have the whiz. What do I have? The whiz, the whiz. Would you spell that please, Dasha? 

W-h-e-e-z-e. Oh lord. If I hadn’t felt so terrible, I would have died laughing. 

The gist of the conversation was that, if I didn’t feel better, I should get a chest X-ray taken. The doctor was so nice and was trying so hard to help me understand. She led me back to the reception, still talking to me. She made sure the in-house pharmacy had the meds I needed. She just felt as helpless as I did that we couldn’t communicate better.

I paid the doctor bill ($12), bought my meds ($7.50) and headed home. Since I was totally exhausted,  

 I fell into bed when I got there. But then I’m starting to think, hmmmmm, I still don’t like this low energy vibe and I wonder how much I didn’t understand. So I texted my friend at school, told her what happened and asked her to call the clinic. On the first call they wouldn’t gave out any information for privacy reasons, but she tried once again and this time they talked to her. (I’ll bet it was the nice doctor.) In any case, they recommended a chest X-ray. OK. So my friend finds out where it can be done on a Saturday morning and since Claudia was going to come over and make me soup today anyway, I asked her if she would come a little early and take me to the X-ray place. No problem.  We found the X-ray place with no problem and the whole thing only took about 45 minutes and cost............(Wait for it!).......$12.  I’ve lived in two countries now where there has been some sort of subsidized health care and I can tell you, it’s the only way to go. No artificially jacked up prices that you can’t afford. Everyone can use it. It makes life so much easier.

In any case, we stopped first at the post office before we got back to my place. Then, since parking is so bad around my building, I had Claudia drive up on the snow-covered sidewalk to get past the barrier into the parking lot. It was easier than driving around for half an hour looking for an open snowbank to park it.

She mixed me some great lemon, ginger and honey concoction and made a wonderful batch of healthy, hearty soup, which I shared with Jennifer and Jake because they are both sick. So now, I’m just resting as much as possible and trying to cure myself of the whiz.

I’ll try to get back to school on Monday.