"I'll just drink gallons of water and it will all be OK," I said to myself. "No need for a doctor," I said to myself.
This morning, when I found myself "holding it" until 11:30 and things not going so well at that time, I acquiesced and called my primary physician. And was told that he could see me on Monday. No sympathy at all when I suggested that I might die by Monday. I called my gynecologist, where at least the receptionist sounded genuinely sorry that there were no appointments until Monday. The spouse of a coworker is a P.A. but unfortunately, he is out of town. So, I kicked the stragglers out of the library, let the teachers who were using the library today know what was going on, grabbed a book from the library shelf and headed to Urgent Care (I'd already told the school secretary who asked why I was still at school).
I checked in at the Urgent Care desk a little after 12:30, was seen by the Triage Nurse at 1:00 (I determined that counts as the "official" time I got to the clinic as I was still hearing a 2.5 hour wait time being quoted by the front desk when I left at 3:30), and settled in with my book, my crossword puzzles, and my iPod to wait it out. I visited the snack shop which I found to be quite reasonably priced--a can of Diet Coke, a small sack of Ritz Bits, and a 24 oz. bottle of water for under $2. Thanks to my supply of activities and snacks--and a 4 year old with a possibly broken nose who told her mom, "It doesn't hurt if I don't touch it. I'm going to try touching it."--the afternoon wait went quickly. About 3:15, I finally gave a sample and saw the doctor a bit after that. I like that she told me there was "an impressive amount of blood and pus." I don't know why that makes me feel good. It's not like it's a competition and I can't be all "Woohoo! I'm #1 for UTIs!" I caught the infection early enough that it hasn't spread to my kidneys and three days of antibiotics and lots of water is all that is needed to clear this all up.
And one more picture from Christmas, courtesy of Mom. Happy 5th Birthday, Abigail! I hope your day was better than mine.
