A few days ago, our little Abigail was getting sick. She's been sick before, so it wasn't worrying us too much. However, she was starting to develop a deep cough in her chest and Joanna was slightly worried that it could develop into pneumonia. For that reason, Joanna decided to take Abby to the "Urgent" Care facility that is near our house.
I met Joanna a little afterward (she got there at 6:15) and she was waiting. And waiting. I waited too. And waited. After about thirty minutes of waiting, Joanna's name was called. No, they weren't taking us to the exam rooms, they simply needed to return Joanna's driver's license and insurance cards.
So we continued to wait. And wait. Jeopardy came on (it comes on at 7pm over here). And Abby watched and tried to answer some of the questions. She got a couple right, but it was a hard question day. Then we watched Wheel of Fortune (which is right after Jeopardy). Then we watched that show The Middle (are you seeing a pattern here, folks?).
And they call it "Urgent" Care? Doesn't seem so urgent.
According to Joanna, when she arrived, there were a handful of people waiting ahead of her. And yes, each of those people were seen ahead of Abby, but it seemed as if they were each taking forty five minutes to examine, diagnose and treat each of those patients.
We even got to start watching the beginning of Modern Family at 8:30 and were finally called back around 8:40pm. Remember, Joanna got there at 6:15. The other bummer was that by this point, Abby was tired of being there and was falling asleep. To the point that at 8:45 (when we still hadn't been seen by a doctor), I walked out of our exam room, found a person and asked them when the doctor would be checking on us. She had the nerve to ask "Did you bring a bottle to calm her down?" A bottle? She wasn't hungry, lady, she was exhausted. Some people.
Well, even though she said she would come back, she didn't. We did hear her talk to the doctor and heard him say there were two or three ahead of us. Fantastic (said with sarcasm). At this point, it was pointless to leave since we had waited so long.
Eventually, the doctor did come into the exam room, which seemed more like a storage space with supplies strewn all over it. Because Abby was basically asleep in Joanna's arms, he had to maneuver around her in order to check Abby. Plus, since she was grumpy, it was that much more difficult for him to examine her. However, he got enough information to determine that she had a bronchial infection that also was causing her to have conjunctivitis. Lucky for us, we caught the eye problem early and had been using an ointment that Abby had gotten when she was a few months old and had gotten conjunctivitis and it was working well.
I waited some more for the doctor to write out the prescription and then waited again at CVS for the medication to be filled. All in all, I suppose it was a good thing that Joanna took Abby to the doctor because we did find out she was sicker than we thought. Plus, we got the antibiotic into her system, which, hopefully, will help her start feeling better.
And yet, I am going to renew my disappointment and anger and the prospect of calling a place "Urgent" care, when it takes three hours to be seen and treated by a doctor. Oh, and one last tidbit....the facility closed at 9 - just as we were being seen by a doctor.
Until next time.
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