What a lousy weekend. Yesterday C’s aching back went from, well, aching — which it had been since last weekend — into full-blown out-of-control pain. We went to the emergency room last night after I talked to the consulting nurse…but being a Saturday night, it was packed. Nowhere for him to lay down, couldn’t get comfortable in the chairs, couldn’t stand up for too long, so after an hour we came home. This morning we went to the urgent care, which was amazing in comparison. We were 3rd in line when it opened, waited less than 15 minutes, the doc & nurse were both very helpful, and the physical therapy people are going to call & set up an appointment. Plus, yes, medication. He’s not doing great, but he’s okay. I think he’s finally asleep after not sleeping at all last night and hardly at all the night before.
Which was bad enough…but yesterday I also broke my glasses. The frames were a little bowed and I was trying to bend them back into shape. Instead, I broke off one earpiece. So I can’t see, unless I’m wearing my sunglasses. And then I can’t see unless it’s fairly bright. My prescription expired in July, right after I got my sunglasses, and I used up this year’s benefit on, well, my sunglasses. So tomorrow I have to get an exam (which is still covered, thankfully) and a new pair of glasses, which isn’t. In the meantime, I’m doing a lot of squinting, and I have a headache. I can use the computer because my eyesight goes wonky about an arm’s length away from my head.
Last night I drove C to the emergency room because at the time his leg was spasming…technically, legally: I should not have been. My driver’s license even has an eyeglasses restriction. At least by the time we left he was doing well enough to do the driving; same thing this morning. But it is all sort of ridiculous. It would be funny if it wasn’t both painful and annoying.
There was a woman with an infant standing next to us in the emergency room last night — a woman with a sick baby who’d been there for at least two hours. As C said when we left, seeing something like that makes you feel like whatever you’ve got, you’re not really doing all that bad.
I will (mostly) refrain from my usual health insurance rant, and merely note, again, that the American health care “system” is a travesty.