Crap. So here I am sitting around listening to an endlessly annoying robo-answering machine yakathon, trying to get through to Young Dr. Kildare’s office. Ad after ad after ad after “do you have [THIS SCARY DISEASE?]” and “we just hired [THIS EXPENSIVE NEW SPECIALIST]” blats. Damn, it’s worse than the vet’s office.
Looks like I’ve come down with a case of thrush — a nasty little fungal infection of the mouth. Hurts. A lot.
{chortle!} While I was writing that whole long series on overuse and misuse of prescription drugs here in the US and throughout the developed world, I was thinking isn’t it odd that this Claritin stuff doesn’t seem to have ANY side effects?
The stuff not only beats back the most obvious allergy miseries, by clearing out the head — and presumably the aging Eustachian tubes — it has made the episodes of vertigo (accompanied by a terrifying sensation of heart palpitations) go COMPLETELY away. I haven’t had another of those unpleasant moments since I started taking these handy-dandy little pills.
Well, so it seemed. Until a couple of days ago when the tongue and the inside of the lips started to swell up.
I assumed it was irritation from the damned dental nightguard that I have to wear to keep from pulverizing what remains of my teeth. Stopped wearing it.
Irritation just got worse. Nothing, of course, helps.
Last night I’m about to gulp down an allergy pill so as to be able to breathe through the night and think…uh oh!
Look it up.
Yup. One of the potential side effects of Claritin indeed is, yea verily, thrush! It’s not actually listed as a direct effect, nor does the infection itself appear in more credible sources. It comes about indirectly from the dry mouth the drug can cause.
Okay, after almost 15 minutes YDK’s yak-a-thon shunted me over to the “leave a message” recording. See, there was a REASON i wanted to speak with a human…
So after leaving word and hanging up the phone and feeling pretty irked, decided to see if I can get in at the Mayo. It really isn’t THAT much further than YDK’s new office is — he’s way over on the westside now. And driving to far east Scottsdale does not require trekking through mile after mile after dreary mile of slums.
Besides, on the way home I can stop at the Fancy Fry’s Market at Tatum & Shea. Got an appointment at 2:30, convenient because it does not require doing battle with rush-hour traffic. For a change. That will leave some time for an errand.
And the Mayo puts classical music on its answering machine, choosing not to insult you with annoying advertising messages.
Damn it, though! I’d planned to use today to do some writing and to send an article proposal to a new editor. Driving halfway to Payson and back will consume the entire afternoon, especially if I have to drop by a drugstore on the way home. Actually, the Fry’s has a drugstore…but that entails standing around for 15 or 20 minutes while they prepare the stuff. Takes a full hour to get out there…so I leave here at 1:30, kill half-an-hour or 40 minutes there, kill half an hour on the way home picking up the drug, continue the journey for another half-hour…that’s a minimum three hours. Then I have to go to choir this evening. By the time I get back, I’ll just have time to fix and bolt down dinner before shooting back out the door.
I am so, so, so-o-o-o-o tired of going to doctors!