Yesterday the throat and sinuses worsened, especially the throat. Fever rose although battery on thermometer did not work. Could tell from severe headache and body aches, and the terrible sore throat--looked like strep although could not stand but a couple minutes to look in mirror: White splotches.
So I tried again with the doctors' clinic, begging to have an Azithromycin (Zpack) called to pharmacy. They refused. Said I had to come in. I explained all over again as I had been for the previous two days, that I am too ill to come in. It was not my fault that the doctor I saw on Monday morning neglected to write down my asking if I should have an antibiotic for sinus infection coming on nor mention I told her of my sore throat for two days--then.
A nurse was going to try to contact the doctor who only is there two days a month. I had suggested that perhaps the doctor would remember and could tell them, for the clinic folks continued to say that since it was not written in my chart, they could not call in the needed antibiotic.
Round and round we went. I said would be ridiculous for me to have to take an ambulance just to get a z-pack; but the person at clinic said that would be what I'd have to do unless I'd get someone to bring me. Again I explained that I cannot manage being up for more than two minutes and then must get back down; I would not make it from my place to the road to get into a car, nor from a car into their office. I cannot risk falling due to the rods in my back.
The couple from the parish--the man--was willing to pick me up from clinic as I did find out from the Fire and Rescue Dept. that if I'd call 911 and they would dispatch them, they could take me to the doctors' clinic and not charge. But I'd have to get a way back and get the z-pack from pharmacy.
The clinic said they would fit me into their schedule if I could come in. The couple was leaving the area for the weekend later in the afternoon. I called 911, and they put me through to their emergency nurse. I had to go through the entire tale once more, and it is not easy for others to grasp that with the back issues and high level of pain, and with a sinus infection as well as now strep throat, I could not make it by car.
The 911 nurse could not grasp and kept insisting I take a taxi; none here although she looked online and gave me a number. I did not bother to tell her they no longer are in service. A bus? I explained again I could not stand up long enough to make it to a bus stop! She said that I am able to get to the bathroom--yes, but that is 12 feet away from my sleeping bag on floor. That's a short distance compared to farmhouse door to road.
Anyway, it ended up that she did tell me Doxycycline would not help the throat but I needed a Zpack. Yes, I knew that, but it helped to have professional support on that fact.
While I was on the line with 911, the nurse from clinic had called. I returned the call; she had not gotten any response from the doctor I'd seen on Monday. I said that I knew she would not for I had called the doctor's other office in another area, and the doctor was on vacation that day and hence. I mentioned I had not answered the nurse's call as I was talking with the 911 emergency nurse, as the local Fire and Rescue operator and her supervisor thought I should call 911 to get an ambulance, be assessed and brought to the clinic that way. Yes, extreme, but what could I do?
I explained again it was not my fault that the doctor had not written down half the reason I was there on Monday morning, and that the doctor had told me to wait a bit before an antibiotic. So between perhaps the extreme I was going to have to take to get my body there, as I explained yet again I seriously cannot get out to a car, and the man willing to pick me up is older than I am, and I cannot make them responsible for trying to hold me up to get me into a car, nor at this point did I want to expose them to strep as it is very contagious.
So the nurse said she'd try one more thing.
People were praying--friends in email and text contact. The couple had left the area by this time but had agreed if I could get that zpack called in, they would try to find someone in the parish to pick it up and bring it to me--drop it off. With 90 minutes remaining before pharmacy closed in the evening, a nurse practitioner called. Once more I had to go through the entire saga, and she finally relented and said she'd call in the z-pack only if I'd make an appointment to come in on Monday to be seen.
(Evidently she was accepting that I would be better, that I truly needed that Zpack, perhaps after I'd said what the 911 emergency nurse had said. We do have to have "authorities" backing us; what do we know, huh?) While I reminded the NP at the clinic that they are closed on Monday, she then said Tuesday; turns out they don't have openings Tuesday but they said then Wednesday would be all right. They'd call in the zpack.
By then less than an hour remained to get the needed medication. Texting back and forth with the parish couple who were going to be out of cell service the next day, and they with a man named John, they said he could pick up the medication and bring it and for me to tell them when it was ready. I'm not sure why they could not put John in contact with me, other than people are extremely cautious in these parts, and I have learned to be that way, also--but not with those I've known for over a year....
So from that one breakthrough with the clinic who agreed to call in a simple z-pack, all went smoothly. The pharmacy has even started taking the Part D medication insurance I pay for, so what otherwise would have been an over-priced z-pack was inexpensive. They got it ready immediately, another text sent to the couple with reminder to tell John to bring a flashlight as is quite dark on the property until one gets to a point of flood lights coming on. And just before the pharmacy closed, and soon after, I had the z-pack.
Of course, I'm "sicker'n a dog" as my late dad often would say when we kids had something beyond the cold or light flu. I considered just how chaotic and horrific was the ordeal of trying to get that medication in hand. There is much I've left out, such as telling the clinic staff that I was documenting all and texting and emailing friends and family so that they'd have the information should something happen to me. I pointed out that while the clinic kept justifying their not calling in that medication when Wednesday morning they said they would--saying my symptoms were not mentioned in the doctor's notes--that a judge and jury would think otherwise given my documentation. More than that, of course, GOD KNOWS.
I also mentioned that the Fire and Rescue team were appalled at how the clinic was digging in their heels when I had explained reasonably, even if not typical scenario, that I truly could not physically get into the clinic by car, and that ambulance was not a sure thing although the Fire and Rescue people were so disgusted with the clinic that they assured me they would once 911 sent them the dispatch.
Yet despite all the finagling, God worked it all out in an instant once one Nurse Practitioner agreed to bend the rule, which the Fire and Rescue agreed has not always been the case at that clinic. Regardless, they will get their money for an appointment as I don't mind going in once I am better and able, which I figure I will be by next Wednesday.
I marvel at the way God allowed this craziness to go on for three days, in which I grew steadily more ill. And for all the effort I had to put out in just getting some help over something that would have easily been handled had the doctor been more thorough in note-taking. And true, I was surprised as that doctor seems to be the brains and head-on-straight person in that clinic.
But once the persevering was done, and I and others had prayed and prayed, and I relinquished myself into God's hands and said I would simply have to accept whatever outcome in my health with the strep throat--God broke through the barrier and all else unfolded so easily, beautifully, and even better than I figured given the pharmacy having added my insurance plan.
I have since reflected about Lent, about how we must never give up until we have exhausted all avenues no matter how ridiculous or unnecessary or extreme. We must relinquish ourselves to God once we've done all humanly possible, and accept whatever fate. And we must accept the timing of God and the added suffering in the interim, for had I been given that Zpack on Wednesday, I'd not now be so sick.
Last night I was able to be up under three minutes, long enough to put a cup of rice in a saucepan with a couple cups of boxed chicken stock, turn on stove, and collapse back down on the sleeping bag. A half hour later I was up under two minutes putting some in a bowl and shoving the pan in the refrigerator, and back down on the floor. Legs are so shaky and am so nauseated, that the effort to get up is taxing.
I had texted the couple, also, to see if they knew of anyone in the parish who perhaps would be willing to drop off some bananas or soup from a store deli, but that was too much to suggest, I realize. Yes, people are cautious, and I realized that people who are highly scheduled people think in terms of others being likewise, and that others would have their schedules full and would not be able to fit in an added purchase and drop off.
And likewise, those who are not scheduled people probably assume that others are not scheduled, and thus have no set plans and can do and go without much difficulty in arrangements.
And, I also considered that I still have two grapefruit in here, although my stomach not yet up for them, and I have yet this last box of the chicken stock with the rice, and if I can gain enough strength in time to be able to make it as far as pole barn and back, I can get a loaf of grain bread from the freezer and eat that with peanut butter. And I have some frozen Edamame that can be microwaved, and in the fridge freezer, once my throat can swallow that.
God provides. I will make do with gratitude and trust. Again what would traditional hermits of yore do in such circumstances? Well, not lean unto their own understanding, and cast their cares upon the Lord.
So that is what I must do, hope i have done, and plan to do going forward. And to take to heart today's Gospel reading in which Jesus points out that the healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. Jesus is the great Physician, and I am sick of and with sins and sick in body as well. So He's the One to turn to, in prayer and thanksgiving! And I will wait with the Lord here until healthier days come.
God did allow the devil to push and push for three days with that clinic staff, but God prevailed in the final hour. And God's prevailing is really all that matters when all is said and done.
Note: A quite practical lesson I have learned and will carry forth for my earthly days remaining: Never leave a doctor's office until assured the doctor has made note in medical records of all symptoms discussed.
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