Going to the Clinic

I made my first clinic visit today. I seem to be getting this increasingly frequent problem where I get a cold that just doesn't end and makes my voice go awry. It started at the beginning of college and came only every two or three years, but now it's happening every year, or maybe even more often than that. It really doesn't seem like too many months ago I was seeing someone about this thing. They told me it was allergies last time.

So I've been coughing and producing massive amounts of phlegm for two weeks, and the last few days my voice has been all weird. Heather's mom took me to the clinic, which was right down the street, and luckily it was a wham, bam, thank you ma'am kind of deal. The doctor stuck some metal tubes in my nose and mouth to get samples after I told him my symptoms (or helped Heather's mom tell him). He told I needed fluids and rest. Duh. Then I had to hold this plastic facemask near, but not on, my face while it spat steam on me. Then I got a shot--the first time I've ever had to bare my ass to do so. Then the nurse swung the curtain open before I even got my pants back up, haha. Privacy doesn't seem to be an issue here.

We went to the pharmacy across the street for my medication, which consists of FIVE pills a day for the next six days. I have no idea what they are, or what the shot was, but it's not the practice here for doctors to tell patients what they're doing to them. It all felt kind of reminiscent of when I went to the hospital in Kenya for this same problem, and they gave me fifteen pills in an unmarked envelope and told me to take three a day for five days. Mystery medication. I hope it works.

By the way, the whole thing cost under twelve bucks, and I don't even have my medical insurance yet. What a country.