By Sally Gracie
Here’s how my day has gone.
I felt crummy when I woke up. My head felt wrong; my lower back and my legs felt wrong. I just didn’t feel right. That little voice said “Call the doctor. Call 911.” The other voice said, “You’re being a hypochondriac. You’re probably just getting a cold.” So I continued my day without seeking medical attention.
When I returned from an appointment in Winthrop at 2:15 p.m., I followed the voice that commanded me to drive up the street to Methow Valley Family Practice. I hoped someone would see me.
“I just don’t feel right,” I told the young woman at the desk whom I didn’t know. “My head feels weird.” When she said that I could come back a 4 p.m., I had a minor meltdown. She left her desk to go to the back and shortly came back to tell me that Dr. Jensen would see me. I should take a seat in the waiting room.
I sat there, and I waited, certain that I was having at the least a panic attack, at the worst a heart incident. “Who can take Beebe to Rover’s Ranch when they send me to the emergency room?” I imagined the worst possible outcomes. No wonder my blood pressure was high.
I could tell by Julie’s face that it was higher than it should be, so I didn’t ask for the numbers as I usually do. While I waited for Dr. Jensen, I tried, without much success, to breathe mindfully.
When Joe came into the room, he already knew me and my medical record well. He knew the best questions to ask me. The examination lead to a “not pulmonary” diagnosis. Instead, Joe saw a lot of yucky stuff dripping post-nasally. A sinus infection! That’s why my head feels it’s going to explode.
The legs feeling “wrong?” I know the answer to that. I haven’t been doing my PT exercises for the past few days. It’s funny — I mean that ironically — but I recently told a friend that I have 45 minutes of exercises to do in the PT room before I even step into the gym. The exercises are for four separate body parts: my calves, my lower back, my shoulder and my neck. Getting older is a race to stay ahead of what ails me. As Pete Dickenson advises, “use it or lose it.”
And that is how today reminded me that there’s probably always gonna be something from now on, and I should know better than to diagnose myself. Dr. Jensen is only going to be across the street for a couple more years, so I might as well take advantage of his medical knowledge.
When I went to pick up my prescription at Ulrich’s, I ran into a friend — one who is definitely more together than I. And much younger. I shared my health saga with her, emphasizing how weird and tight my head feels. “The same thing happened to me. When I had a sinus infection, I was certain I had a brain tumor,” she told me.
Happy birthday to Charlene Burns, whose birthday is today, Groundhog Day. By the way, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. Don’t know what Wilbur the Whistlepig in Winthrop saw.
Did you catch the banner headline in Monday’s Seattle Times? “DEFLATED” kind of says it all.
