sick

sick sick sick.


I had this rotten fever + ache combo Sunday evening through Monday... not particularly high, as fevers go, but I felt terrible. As in, I was lying there thinking "Well, this could be swine flu. These might be my last few days on earth... I'VE WASTED MY LIFE!"

Lots of feverish apologies to Jen and Jed for being hard to deal with, etc.

In the words of John Cleese "I got better".

Well, actually, I felt so much better after the fever was gone that I sort of ignored the stopped up sinuses and drainage. After two days of coughing, and with Jed running a mild fever, we decided that we should go to the doctor.

If you move to the UK, I'd suggest setting up a GP before you get sick, as it's not fun to think about once you're actually unwell. We took a look at the NHS website, found the closest doctor's office - which they call a "surgery" - and gave them a call at 9AM. They were taking new patients, and said they could see us that morning at 10:15. If we got there at 10 we could fill out the paperwork.

The paperwork consisted of.... writing down my name, Jed's name, and our address. The doctor saw us right away - and since Jed and I had the same thing, we both went in together. A discussion of the symptoms, we both got an examination, and then a prescription for antibiotics.

I'd heard a lot of horror stories about the NHS - and undoubtedly it does have its drawbacks - but my experience was really pleasant. The staff seemed competent, they were nice to deal with, and, unlike Brooklyn, I didn't have to take a train to get there. We'll see how future interactions go, but this was a pretty good intro.