Tuesday morning, I had to once again avail myself of heath care. Now those who know me know that I won’t go see a doctor unless something requires stitching up, a bone is broken, or something seriously bad has happened. Well, what happened on Sunday night was almost seriously bad, so I made an appointment to see Doctor Ed.
For lack of a better term, we’ll call it The Coughing Incident. I have been fighting a cold and bronchitis on and off for the last two weeks, and thought I was getting the better of it. Sunday evening, I laid down to get some sleep and started coughing. And coughing. And coughing. For close to 4 hours, it was pretty much unstoppable. Hard, heavy coughing, the kind that makes the bottom of your stomach hurt. I must have also been running a bit of a fever, because I also sweat through the t-shirt I was wearing, as if I had walked into the shower. To be honest, it was a little scary.
The wife, who believes that I should see a doctor for almost anything, didn’t have to tell me to make an appointment with the good Doctor Ed. I was the first one to call the clinic on Monday morning. That’s what you call a “no brainer”.
My personal physician could be described as a bit of a curmudgeon, but I love the guy to death. He knows that if I make an appointment, it’s not for some bullshit reason to waste his time or worry about some minor ailment. He examined me, and determined that I don’t have pneumonia. I do have really bad bronchitis, with a bit of a cold thrown in for good measure. He knows that I don’t have a problem with drugs, so he laid a prescription for some serious antibiotic firepower on me, along with some cough syrup that is mostly codeine. When I left the clinic, he warned me about the cough syrup, telling me not to plan on using any machinery more complicated than the remote control if I used it. I left his clinic upbeat.
Get home last night, get the typical “I told you that you were sick” lecture from the wife, and proceed to ingest my medicines. Two teaspoonfuls and an hour later, I understood what the doc and the pharmacist meant about the cough syrup. It didn’t make me sleepy or drowsy, but it did make me feel relaxed. Totally relaxed, stress free, no worries. The apartment could have caught fire, and I would have very calmly put my pants on and walked outside. Not buzzed, but happy.
Tomorrow morning, the wife and I get on an airplane and head off for Manila. She has doctor’s appointments next week at St. Luke’s Medical Center, and will more than likely have minor surgery sometime later in the month. Because of my limited vacation time, I can only stay there for 10 days, but the wife plans on staying for at least a month. I’m hoping that the change in scenery and temperature (small that it is) will help the bronchitis. I’m also hoping to be in a stress free environment away from work so I can finally quit smoking. Knowing my in-laws, the stress free part is probably a dream, but a guy can hope.
Something else I have learned recently concerns my wife. I have been married to a Korean woman and am currently married to a Filipina, and have learned that both past and present wives do not know what the term “pack lightly” means. As in “get out the bathroom scale and weigh the luggage and hope we have enough room”. I don’t blame her, but I know it’s gonna be a pain in the ass.
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