Just Say No, Because They Told Me I Had To

Damn. No drugs. Evidently I’m sick, just not sick enough.

After 11 days of a low-grade fever, the dregs of a cold, and wacked-out sugars, I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. My regular doctor was unavailable, so they gave me a resident. I didn’t like her. She asked questions that sounded straight from a med-school year one text book. When she went to look at my throat, she had to stand on tiptoe, and did it from two feet away, vaguely shining a light in the direction of my face. “Say ahhh.” “Ahhh.” “Wait—say ahhh again.” “Ahhh.”

She told me there really wasn’t anything to do, but she had to talk to her supervisor. I waited. He came in. He was very nice, and very condescending. “Sometimes, Lora, viral infections take a while to run their course. Eleven days is certainly within that time frame. If you still have a fever after, say, two more weeks, come back then.”

I felt stupid and frustrated. I normally wouldn’t go to the doctor for a low-grade fever—I’m not an idiot. But this is the first one I’ve had that’s lasted eleven days. And certainly the first one I’ve had that lasted eleven days with a dose of diabetes on the side. Silly me for believing all the literature that says if you’re diabetic and have a fever for more than three days, even a little one, you should see a doctor. I waited 11 days because I didn’t want to seem like one of those people who ran to the doctor for every little thing. Evidently, though, based on the tone of the resident and the supervisor, I am one of those people.

So now, there’s nothing to do but wait. All in all, I could be sitting around with a fever for a total of four weeks, sugars running amuck, going through sweating and freezing phases, feeling completely lethargic, and having phlegmmy substances running from my head down the back of my throat (which I dare say the doctor might have seen had she stood on a stepstool or gotten a few inches closer).

I’m getting a second opinion from a different doctor today, in an unofficial capacity. If she thinks there is something more that should have been done, I’m going to e-mail my endo, or try to make an appointment with my regular doctor. If she agrees, I’ll just wait it out, take naps and let the sugars do what they may.

As always, more to come…