So it was off to a specialist this morning, a pulmonologist recommended by a friend on the choir, who herself is an RN. He, I discovered when I got there, managed to get himself on Phoenix Magazine’s “Top Docs” list in 2011, for whatever that’s worth.
At any rate, his office proved to be very professional and efficient. They got me in to see him today when I called yesterday morning, which has to be some sort of all-time speed record for an American doctor’s office. At the Mayo, I couldn’t even get past the gate-keepers the last time I called–their phone answering lady just left me hanging, to suffer over the weekend and beyond.
He did some breathing tests and asked a wide variety of questions. Tentatively his theory is that it’s either a chronic bronchitis that began with a viral infection six weeks ago or is Valley fever. He’s redoing the Valley fever test, on the theory that antibodies often don’t show up until a month or more after the infection; however, when I said I’d tested positive in my 20s, he remarked that probably, then, this is not Valley fever. That notwithstanding, as long as he’s bleeding me anyway, he ordered the test.
He also is testing for a variety of other ailments and signs of asthma and allergies; next week he wants to do allergy tests.
Let’s hope he doesn’t decide I’m allergic to Cassie!
Never have had a problem with dogs before, though long-term exposure to cats gives me a chronic stuffy head. I had no idea it wasn’t normal for one’s nose to be plugged up until I left my husband and his houseful of cats. After I’d been away for a while, one day it dawned on me…hey! my head isn’t stuffy all the time. Since then I’ve avoided puddy tats.
At any rate, the new doc came forth with a packet of Prednisone pills considerably less powerful than the ones the Mayo’s ER doc gave me, and he said that yes, they would disarm my immune system, but not enough to cause a clinical immunocompromise. He felt that no matter what I might be infected with, the stuff would be safe to take in the short term.
He also thought I should start the antibiotic she gave me, but was puzzled when I told him she said I should do the Prednisone first and then if that didn’t work I should take the antibiotic. He said for acute bronchitis you’re supposed to take them together. And also swallow some Prilosec to try to control the bellyache these drugs will cause.
So in the course of two hours, I’ve gone from no drugs to three drugs a day
He said that even though the antibiotic is in the same family with erythromycin, which has caused some untoward effects in my body, 80 percent of people who have a bad reaction to erythromycin can tolerate this stuff. I pointed out that if a drug has a weird side effect, any weird side effect, I inevitably am gonna get it. He said if anything uncomfortable arises, just quit taking the stuff.
Meanwhile last night when I dragged out to the mailbox, what should I find but a jury summons.
Damn.
Actually, I don’t mind serving on a jury—or wouldn’t, if I ever got past the stage of wasting eight hours in the court’s waiting room. But the problem right now is that if I miss a day of class, my pay is docked, no ifs ands or buts. I’m trying to get the District to come forth with a written statement of that policy, but the woman in the District office the college told me to call can’t be bothered to return my call.
Ideally, I would like to get myself excused from this recurring hassle. But if I can’t get her off the dime, it is at least possible to ask for a postponement, and apparently you can even go online and ask for a specific date. So if I can, I’ll just push it forward to this summer, which at least would give a week or two on which to serve, in the unlikely event that I’m called.
People with PhD’s by and large are not regarded by lawyers as any client’s “peers,” so in all these years I’ve never made it on to a jury.
A friend of mine did, though. The judge told the jury to expect the trial to last a couple of days. Two weeks later it was still dragging on!
She was teaching, too, but at GDU no one pays much attention to whether you’re there or not, and so she at least didn’t get the financial shaft. And she taught poli sci, not writing courses, making it possible for her to send her friends to the classroom bearing videos to keep the kiddies busy.
I, on the other hand, will simply lose my paycheck if I’m forced to serve on a jury.
The other concern is that experience shows the various courts are using the same rotating call-up list. You get called for Superior Court, then City Court, then Federal Court, then the Grand Jury. A summons to the Grand Jury is really bad news, because you’re shanghaied not for a week or two but for many, many months, during which you’re on call and have to show up at the drop of a proverbial hat to proceedings that can last for lengthy periods. So I can expect at least two and possibly three more of these little headaches to show up in the mail within the next few weeks. Goodie!
Well, a ton of copy awaits. And so, to work…
Ugh, jury duty. I loathe it as the jurors have less rights than the people on trial. Locked up in a room and you left your lunch in a cooler in the Grand Caravan and now they tell you you can’t leave the room. $2 for a Kit Kat bar in the vending machine.
Here in Nye county most take a plea after a few hours under a bare bulb while the detectives play bad cop, bad cop and beat them with a rubber hose.
I’ve been called for Federal jury service 3 times in Las Vegas 65 miles from the ranch. The court house is in a bad part of town and there is a good chance of getting mugged on that 2 block walk from the parking garage to the court house. They send those jury summons to my mail box on our gravel street 60 miles from no where and I have documented a history of my mail carrier not closing my mail box.
If I get another one, cause they are just sent in the mail, you don’t have to sign for them, I’ll just leave it in the mail box and leave the door open.
The next time a dust devil comes by that letter will be in the next county in a matter of minutes.
Here’s some tips to get out of jury duty:
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Out-of-Jury-Duty
If that doesn’t work keep in mind you have some room in the voir dire.
(that latin stuff always blows air up my skirt)
If asked about the quality of a witness, police vs citizen always chose the police.
On capital punishment, go for the ‘electric bench’ instead of the electric chair.
‘Let’s do them 10 at a time to save electricity’
Luckily the jury duty system is Cook County, IL is the “one day, one trial” approach. I’ve been called to jury duty several times, but only once selected for a trial. If you’re not selected for a trial, you’re dismissed that day and don’t have to go back.
The one trial I served on was a civil trial, but I learned a lot about my fitness as a juror during it. The next time I made it to the voir dire stage I very honestly told the judge right up front that I was going to have a problem following his directions during the trial. If I was not allowed to ask questions, I was going to have a nearly impossible ability to come to a decision. That very honest comment — coupled with the fact that the judge was confused by the periodicals I read such as Utne and Fast Company — led to me being dismissed in the initial round. I haven’t been on a voir dire since, but I’m more than happy to serve on a trial…as long as they let me ask the lawyers questions.
Let me be clear, I don’t want to be locked up in Jail as a juror.
@ Linda: We have something similar; I’ve never heard it given a name, but basically you go in, you sit around all day, usually you don’ t even get called to talk to a judge or lawyers, and then you’re dismissed. Federal court is different, however: you’re impaneled before you even reach the courthouse, and when you get there in the morning you go straight to the courtroom for voir-dire. That is much more efficient, and it’s very interesting.
If they give you any date you choose to ask for a postponement, and you really hate the whole idea of doing your civic duty, then ask to be called on the day before a major holiday. One year they called me when I was teaching; I said I wanted to serve but the date they’d set was impossible, so they made it Christmas Eve!
The bastards, thought I! My son was coming in from college that day and was only staying until a day or two before New Year’s, so this was quite mean.
However, we only sat in the waiting room a couple of hours. Turns out lawyers don’t want to go to court on Christmas Eve, either — they all came up with excuses for postponement, and everyone went home.
So. I may ask for July 3 this time. 😉
@ George: I’ve never been able to understand law-&-order types who don’t feel it’s incumbent upon them to participate in the jury system. Seems to me if a person doesn’t like traffic in undocumented laborers, doesn’t like child molesters, doesn’t like dope dealers, doesn’t like drunk drivers, that person ought not to bellyache about having an opportunity to do something about those criminals.
With all that coughing your throat must be quite sore. Drink lots of lemon honey tea. Does wonders for a sore throat.
@ Stephen: The creepy thing about this is, there was never a sore throat, never any nasal symptoms. Just a horrific cough. And yes, at the worst of it, the cough was tearing up my throat. But the discomfort was in a different place from the back-of-the-tonsils hot spot of a typical cold or flu, deeper down the gullet. For several days I couldn’t eat any food that had even the smallest pieces in it — vegetable soup with corn kernels was out, rice was out, anything with any texture at all was out. One day all I could swallow was oatmeal, ice cream, and tea.
That’s why there’s some concern that this is Valley fever or asthma.
@funny
‘@ George: I’ve never been able to understand law-&-order types who don’t feel it’s incumbent upon them to participate in the jury system. Seems to me if a person doesn’t like traffic in undocumented laborers, doesn’t like child molesters, doesn’t like dope dealers, doesn’t like drunk drivers, that person ought not to bellyache about having an opportunity to do something about those criminals.’
Maybe so.
I think I said it all in my very first post.
The $2 Kitkat bar when they wouldn’t let you get out of jail to get lunch.
I’m old and if I don’t get to eat something every hour I’ll be shaking like a wet Chihuahua.
In Las Vegas they built this new 10 story courthouse in the seediest part of town and they don’t even have US Marshals out on the street in the morning.
The parking garage is 2 1/2 blocks away and a couple years ago some maniac walked up the steps with a shotgun and blew away a few people as he entered the building.
One US Marshall was killed as he was ambushed. He never heard the bullet as he was not paying attention.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/04/security-officers-shot-downtown-lv-federal-buildin/
So are our court houses safe?
I feel safe when I have my Ruger P-85 in hands reach.
Every day in Las Vegas at least one person is killed by a gun.
This is usually gang related.
We don’t go to Las Vegas unless it is necessary.
The defense rests.
Lordie, George!!! That Las Vegas courthouse sounds about Wild-West as a junior college in Arizona!
How decrepit are you? Here, when you hit 75, you can get yourself permanently excused from jury duty.
Also, if you really do need to eat frequently to keep from keeling over, you should try to get a doctor to say so in writing. In these parts, that would get you off.
Vegas surely does have some fine seedy districts. Our downtown was renovated and they shoved the bums and muggers down the road a bit. (Heh…into the front yards, parking garages, and public restrooms of the surrounding residential neighborhoods and office districts. 🙄 ) So it’s not totally nasty to visit the downtown Superior Court or the federal courthouse, which is quite a production.
However, there are Superior Court venues in the suburbs, too, so you’re not exceedingly likely to be called downtown. I’ll be visiting a facility just a few blocks from the college, which is in a solidly middle-class part of the city. Usually these are in newer buildings with quiet areas where people can plug in their computers and work, so you don’t have to sit there and be serenaded by small talk and idiot TV blather all day.
Gosh, George. You make Phoenix almost seem civilized compared to Vegas.
Almost.
In Nevada you get excused from jury duty when you are 72.
If you are handicapped, they don’t care just find a handicapped parking place and crawl on in.
The Ms13 is alive and well in Las Vegas and perhaps that is why the Marshals don’t patrol outside the court house
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/january/ms13_011408
If the MS13 tags my house, I will shoot to kill.
My friend has a back- hoe and we will never tell where the bodies are.