Down And Out

I feel like all I've done for the last eight days is sleep. I missed two days of work, and for the first five days I basically rotated between my bed and my couch for napping. I "watched" Castle but I don't know "who done it" in any of the episodes because I fell asleep before the ending. On Tuesday I made myself go back to work, and as soon as I dropped Abigail off at school, I came home... and went back to bed. Yesterday, I dropped her off, came home and went back to bed, got up to teach swim class, and came home and went back to bed.

I finally decided that I'd had it - whatever I was sick with, I hadn't improved any since Monday, and it was time to see a doctor. Since I lost my health insurance in June (:( ) I quickly googled to see what some of my best urgent-care options were. I quickly ruled out a trip to the emergency room (guys, do you know how inflated emergency room pricing can be? I was kind of appalled!) and after doing some checking on urgent care centers around my area, I was pretty discouraged at the pricing - or lack thereof (whenever anybody can't quote me a estimated cost, I get nervous).

I remembered reading on a blog I follow about someone using the urgent care clinic inside Walgreens, so I jumped online and tried to find one nearby. No banana - closest one was in D.C - but the search engine also suggested CVS' Minute Clinic as an alternative. I checked out the website, loved the fact that they published all their prices so you know in advance exactly what you'll be paying, and found one about 35 minutes away.

I was so impressed with the service! I had a wait time of under five minutes, the nurse practitioner I saw was amazing! She took one look at my ears and said I had one of the worst double ear infections she had ever seen, wrote me out a prescription for antibiotics (thank God!) and I was one my way in less than 30 minutes. The whole visit including meds cost less than $115.

Finding this option has been a huge answer to prayer! While I'm still paying for everything out of pocket, knowing I have an affordable option for routine issus or minor illness and injury makes life less stressful. :)

Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in quickly - this is the weekend that the county fair and Artsfest is going on, and I will be so, so disappointed if I don't get to go to either one!