After running a fever for three days and coughing I figured that my choices were to go into the Oakland VA outpatient clinic today or run a risk of having to drive to SF tomorrow to the ER. Having worked oh, so many ERs on Christian holidays so that my staff could have the day off with their families, I didn’t want to be “one of THOSE” patients.
Anyway, I went over and got checked into the same day/acute care clinic. No surprise, I was still running a temperature (suggestion – do NOT take acetaminophen or ibuprofen before going in to be seen if you are running a fever. Going in and checking out normal can mean that a serious infection just might be missed). Fever, tachycardia, mild hypoxia all confirmed that, yes, I was ill and justified being there. Since there wasn’t an x-ray tech in house, I skipped that but otherwise got swabbed, poked, prodded, blood drawn and scripts for four meds while being sent on my way with a list of what to/not to do.
When I got home I set alarms for all my meds and crawled into bed. I think I attempted to stitch on the 9th dragon, but I really don’t remember.
