The trouble with doctors' offices

[aelfgyfu_mead]

So . . . I'm still not feeling great. I think it's just a head cold. I think I have no symptoms of an infection. Every time I call because I'm actually sick, I don't see my doctor (who is great, so I'm not changing doctors' offices!); I see a Physician's Assistant (PA), almost always the same PA. She may be very good. But every single time I have gone to the doctor's office with a bug, I am diagnosed with an infection and given antibiotics. The only suspense is what the infection will be. Sometimes it's strep; once the strep test came back negative after she was sure it was strep, but she was convinced I had some infection, so she prescribed a different antibiotic. Sometimes I have "incipient bronchitis." And, pathetically, every time I've gone, I've been so desperate for relief I have happily accepted the scrip, or the samples, but with increasing suspicions. I know a couple have been real infections, but every time?

Now I have a quandary: if I call the office, I will see a PA, and I will get an antibiotic. My husband has been through the song and dance at the same office with a couple of PA's too. So deciding to call the doctor's office is almost tantamount to prescribing myself antibiotics (though I don't know which iin advance). This is bad. This is very bad. My husband once said he didn't want an antibiotic, so they sent him home with a scrip he didn't have to use. But if one doesn't use it, one wasted the trip to the office; our co-pay isn't bad, but it's not fun to sit around an office around other contagious people. If they give one samples and one doesn't use them, one has wasted the samples. Overuse of antibiotics causes resistance, and use of antibiotics isn't pleasant.

I don't think I have an infection, so I'm not calling. Am I alone in this? (Well, not exactly, because Brilliant Husband faces the same choices.) What's a patient to do?

Comments

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Heavens no! You are definitely not alone. I haven't seen a doctor when I was sick since. Um. Probably 1978 or so. I'm quite sure I was still living at home and my mom wanted me to get a strep test (it wasn't, and I didn't get antibiotics. I don't think I've actually taken oral antibiotics for anything since I had chicken pox when I was seven.)

After all, if it's a virus, it's not like they can do anything about it. (Unless you're in the first 48 hours and you can get some of the new antiviral stuff, but it nearly always takes me more than 48 hours to get past the denial stage- 'no, I am not sick, I can't be sick, I don't have time to be sick now!'- and then it's too late.)

If it's really a head cold, you're stuck with treating the symptoms. Though I've always found that when I was stuffed up, a little light exercise (a brisk walk) actually helped me to feel a lot better, even though it was the last thing I thought I wanted when I'd start. It tends to unstuff you (tricks the body into thinking it needs air more than it needs to clog your airways, I think), and gets the blood moving and so forth.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Having Small Child complicates matters, as I do actually get infections, including strep, since she was born. And my university students are major disease vectors too! But now I feel like the onus is on me to determine what I've got! My previous doctor would see me herself and would sometimes tell me I didn't have an infection, but she left private practice (over liability insurance, sadly). My new doctor is even better, but the PAs for "urgent" appointments are the trade-off.

A brisk walk works great in Florida in January. Sadly, when it's already 80 or over when I get up, it just drains me (tried it on Wednesday, cut the walk short and felt worse on Thursday). It's currently 88 with 79% humidity; our lows are in the upper 70s these days.

I am feeling better today, though (knock on wood). I drink vast quantities of water whenever I'm sick and try to drown the bug.

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I believe you get infections! (For all I know, I do too- but since up until now I've recovered on my own, doctors have not been involved.) I'm also enormously fortunate to have a lifestyle that involves very minimal exposure to infections.. I live and work with grownups, and even then, I'm not compelled to sit cheek-by-jowl with them.

Yeah, in Florida in the summer, any brisk walking is likely to involve a mall or indoor walking track, I'm afraid.

Glad you're feeling better.