2022 Sunday — Urgent Care

This morning Mr. Fun was not doing well at all. We thought that the two injections of antibiotic and the injection of steroid he received Friday morning would make a difference; but, he’s having terrible pain in his throat. He says he can’t swallow; even the pills are difficult too swallow (he just crushed a pain pill and tried to drink it with broth). He’s deciding whether to go to Urgent Care today or wait and return to the “Head & Neck Surgery” department tomorrow morning (it’s his choice, not mine; if he would have let me, I would have taken him to ER).

The Afternoon Update: (short version) Mr. Fun is back home with a new bottle of steroid pills, and he is miserable. He says the pain is increasing. We will be back at Kaiser's "Head & Neck Surgery" department tomorrow morning to see the physician there.

(Long version) When Mr. Fun's name was called to go in to see the "Urgent Care" doctor, I stood at the door with him that led into the exam rooms, I was told I was not allowed in the exam room; they told me to wait in the car "because Covid-positive germs were everywhere" (but I thought "Hey, I have already wandered thru them to get to this location"). I wondered why large billboards with that announcement are not in the parking lot.

I told the nurse that my husband wouldn't remember half of what the doctor would say to him; I needed to listen with him to the doctor’s advice. That did not matter. "Go to your car" were the politely spoken instructions.

So we asked if I could be on "speaker phone" while Mr. Fun was with the doctor, and she said "yes."

So I wandered back thru the Covid-positive germs to the parking lot; in the car I listened on the speaker phone as the "Urgent Care" doctor heard Mr. Fun tell all of the recent scenario.

The doctor then told Mr.Fun that the on-call doctor (he called him an EMT or is that an ENT) this past Friday morning did a thorough exam and looked at Mr. Fun’s throat, at his vocal cords, etc. with a camera and reported that there is redness but no obvious problems.

The doctor today did not use a camera, but said he could see the soreness/redness in the throat. Mr. Fun's first words to me in the recovery room on December 29th after surgery were, "My throat is killing me."

Today the Urgent Care physician prescribed more steroid (pills), which Mr. Fun told the doctor would need to crushed and dissolved in order to swallow them. "Oh, yes, that would be okay," he said as Mr. Fun explained that swallowing was almost impossible. That ended the meeting with the doctor.

After Mr. Fun got his pills at the pharmacy next to Urgent Care, he exited the building and I drove him home.

I then headed out to get Mr. Fun some throat spray that a friend recommended. The "Urgent Care" pharmacy was out of throat spray.

When I got back to the house, Mr. Fun was smashing, crunching, dissolving and trying to swallow pills.

He is miserable. For those who are wondering, we don't know why the medical people did not give him an injection of steroid today instead pills. We do wonder why the pharmacy gave him half-printed instructions, which Mr. Fun didn't notice till he got home (their printer was out of ink).

We have always appreciated Kaiser, and still do, but we think the quality is decreasing.

That’s it for . . . Sunday? Yes it’s Sunday!
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol
and Chloe & Mitzi too!