Tyler Hunt

It’s been over five days now that I’ve dealt with this illness, longer than usual for me, so I finally went to the doctor’s today to try to find out what it is once and for all. I hate going to the doctor. Maybe it’s just because of some bad experience in the past, but I’m just not fond of the thought of putting myself into a building full of other sick people for any extended period of time. They’ve made things a little nicer since the last time I went, however. They have valet parking now (which I didn’t use, but it’s nice to know they have it since parking can be so horrible there), and a little old man in a golf cart who rides around and picks people up from their cars to drive them right to the front door. I made use of his services, and didn’t feel a bit guilty about it either, as I am in a considerably weaker condition than normal today.

Checking in was painless. I was asked for my last name and birth date, and that was the only proof of identity required during my entire visit. No ID card, not even an insurance card. I think she may have made a mistake by not checking the insurance card, as the copay was only $10, while the card stated that it should have been $20. I suppose they’ll be sending a bill for that little discrepancy. On the upside, they take debit cards now.

In the past, the wait times were sometimes well over an hour past the scheduled appointment time. Today, the waiting room was nearly empty, and they took me almost right away. Then there’s the typical ordeal of being moved into the solitary waiting room, where you’re isolated from all the other sick people, but somehow still in the queue to be seen by someone. The nurse came in first and did all of the doctor’s dirty work, and after the doctor finally came, she repeated a lot of the same questions, making the nurse’s questioning somewhat moot.

So, to make a long story a little bit shorter, the doctor left, the nurse came back, she did a mono test, the doctor came back, she told me I don’t have mono. Whatever virus this is, I’m supposed to take Tylenol and that will apparently make everything better.