81
Screwed! That's how I felt one
day in early November Nineteen Ninety when I woke up with my first
serious headache since I had given up drinking corn syrup based
sodas. And this headache wasn't like those, this headache was like a
point of fire at the lower back of my head that stretched like
fingers of pain from there, across my temple on one side, to touch my
forehead. The reason why I felt screwed was because the off the
shelf pain pills I'd been taking for my left leg line of pain
hadn't successfully masked that, nor were they addressing this new
pain. Going to the community health clinic would be a waste of time
as going there for most of my past issues had simply resulted in the
doctor, Betsey, just benignly smiling at me and sending me home
without examination or treatment.
And yet what else could I do?
So I made myself another appointment with her for a few days later
and hoped the pain would go away by then so I could cancel. It
didn't. And so I took the bus from my apartment, then the
connecting bus to the clinic and stood in line so I could be checked
in and sent to the doctors' wing of the building so I could be
checked in again and told to sit. Sometimes the line to be checked
in would be very long and I feared I would miss my appointments, but
when I asked, I was told that checking in at the front desk WAS
REQUIRED before checking in at the appointment waiting area.
When I was called in back, I had come to know the nurse well as I had
been there nearly once a month this year and we visited for a bit and
she took my vitals. Given my past review of my records and finding
out about my surprisingly low body temperature, I had developed the
habit of asking what my vitals were. She told me and my blood
pressure was good as always, but my temperature was still ninety-four
degrees Fahrenheit. I was left alone for a bit before Betsey came
in. She seemed nervous for some reason as she settled down to ask
what brought me in this time. I noted the new headache that was
unwilling to go away. This seemed to help her unease as she said
rapidly, ''It might be a sinus infection. How about if I put you on
some oral antibiotics for a month?''
I sat there wondering if I had just lost my mind. After the
past year of her politely smiling and doing next to nothing for my
health concerns, now she was offering antibiotics without even a
moment's debate? ''Ah, okay,'' I said after my pause and she wrote
the script and I was on my way to their pharmacy. It was Cephalexin,
five hundred milligram capsule, four times a day. As the pharmacy
worked on the same sliding income scale as the doctor visits, this
was only a couple of dollars for the whole month's supply.
On the bus ride back to my apartment, I wondered about it as I had
originally thought that antibiotics made my health issues better back
in Nineteen Eighty-Five when I was briefly on them, but when I had
mentioned that to the clinic's Nurse Practitioner Michael, a year and
a half ago, he had decided to try it out and given me an injection of
Penicillin that did nothing for me. Having spent the intervening
year wondering why, I had concluded that my problem might be in my
intestines alone and only oral antibiotics would help it, explaining
why the injection hadn't helped. But it was just a theory by me
and knowing doctors thought very little of what I had to say about my
health issues, I had never considered the idea of asking for oral
antibiotics to test out my theory... And now here was a month's
worth in my hands.
As the day was already half over, I only had two: One with dinner and
one before I went to bed.
This would be the part where I write that the antibiotics cured
the intestinal problem that had been plaguing me for the past six
years. That I was once again able to gain weight while on a normal
diet. That I no longer suffered from any of the horrifically painful
bathroom bouts that had left me begging to God to ''Please let me
die'' given the level of pain. That with this miraculous result
Betsey decided that my reports of the burning line of pain down the
back of my left leg wasn't a psychological issue but perhaps a
neurological one, sending me to a neurologist who discovered a
bulging spinal disc in my lower back and successfully treated me for
it. That in just a few shorts months after this prescription my
health was fully restored and I was back to being able to work as
well as it curing the sinus infection causing my headache.
I could say all of that, but it wouldn't be completely true...
It turned out the headache was caused by another pinched nerve...
In my neck.
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