Bizarre doctor's visit....

Today I woke up with the same severe chest pain as I went to be with the night before. My plan of "sleeping it off" did not work and I came to the equally painful decision of going to an Urgent Care facility to get it checked out. Now, anyone who knows me, knows I loathe going to the doctor. I see it as a waste of time if you don't have symptoms that are obviously one illness or another. I have had too many experiences of waiting for hours in cold, depressing and uncomforable waiting rooms only to find out from the doctor that I have something he or she cannot treat and I should just go home, tough it out and wait for it to run it's course. Now, I feel that much worse because not only do I feel awful from being sick in the first place, but now I have exposed myself to the toxic germs of all those other people waiting to see the doctor and I have made whatever I had worse because I had to leave the comfort of my bed at home and venture out into the world of cold winds (because it seems that you get the worst symptoms when it is the coldest outside) and high-backed plastic chairs.

My sad story today does end with antibiotics that will supposedly help me get better but my faith in these pills and potions was not helped by the bizarre 4 minute dianogsis I received from the urgent care physician. That's right, he declared he knew exactly what was wrong with me after 4 minutes (most of that time which was spent listening to me breathe). In a dizzying fast explanation of my symptoms, he described to me that (and this is what I think he said as I couldn't process all the medical jargon he threw at me, no matter how many Grey's Anatomy episodes I have seen) I had some sort of viral infection which had probably turned bacterial and spread to my chest. This in turn had caused the joints in my ribcage to swell which was causing my pain in breathing. I tried to be a good patient and ask more questions to understand exactly what was wrong with me. My first question was given a rapid-fire answer which I don't remember from him standing in the doorframe, hand on the door knob. He didn't wait for me to ask another, he just left without saying another word. So completely bizarre.

On top of this, the nurse who took my vitals and asked me preliminary questions had the foulest mouth I have ever heard in a doctor's office. She took my temperature with a digital thermometer but forgot to put the sterile plastic covering on it. After realizing this, she proceeded to wash it with what I can only assume to be cold water from the sink and said to herself "Man, why do I always have to f*$king forget that?" Then when she returned to the examining room after the doctor had left, she was supposed to explain to me the doctor's instructions for my medication. She said, and I quote, "God, I can't read this f**ker's handwriting!" My mouth and Rouzbeh's literally dropped open at this point.

I was so happy to leave that place and will never go back. If you live in Tucson, it is the Urgent Care facility on Swan, just north of Speedway. NEVER GO THERE!!!!