The Doctor Will See You...NOW!

If you fall down the stairs on a Sunday and snap your hootenanny, do you go to the hospital emergency room right away, or do you wait until Monday morning to call your doctor, thinking that if you can get a same day appointment, at least you won't have to sit in the ER waiting room all night just to get a prescription for a throbbing hootenanny? Because you know a measly swelling hootenanny will keep getting one-upped by real emergencies like gun shot wounds and severed arms.

MrMudPuppy and I found ourselves in a similar quandry recently when the pain in his head became unbearable and he knew it was a sinus infection or something and he just needed to get started on antibiotics as soon as possible, or "stat" as they say on the medical dramas. Do they even say "stat" in real hospitals? We thought, shouldn't we just be able to walk in, grab a bottle of pills, pay the good doctor, and walk out?

All I could think of was the last time MrMudPuppy was sicker than a dog with the flu and a temperature of a hundred and something and his brain was frying so we went to the emergency room on a Saturday night (why do these things always happen on the weekend?) and sat there for 4 hours before he saw someone who sent him home with some pills. The wait was agonizing. MMP was miserable, trying to sit up in a chair, hot with fever and out of his mind (in fact, he didn't remember ever going when I reminded him of it and how long we waited). I wasn't looking forward to a long wait again.

We don't have a ton of experience with hospitals, not for ourselves anyway, so we're sort of stupid when it comes to options. Still in my little pea brain, I began to wonder if there wasn't some place like a weekend clinic rather than an ER room to fix the boy up.

While the MudPup Googled for such a place, I jumped in the shower. This may have been a pressing matter, but I couldn't go out looking like a heathen for heaven's sake. He had found something. Turns out these types of places are called Urgent Care Centers, or After Hours Clinics, how about that? So I packed like we were going to the snail races: iPod, writing journal, latest Wired magazine...I was locked and loaded, prepared for the long haul. I was gonna wait the crap out of this doctor, whoever he was. I envisioned sitting amongst crying babies, crying toddlers, whining children, plegm-heavy coughing, sneezing, fevers,...I figured we'd come home with more than we left.

We jumped in the car, drove a few minutes to midtown, entered the building, found Suite #203, and opened the door to see this:

We stood there with the door and our mouths agape. Surely we were in the wrong place. It was Sunday at 3pm. What gives?

Three minutes later, they called MrMudPuppy in. I took advantage of the empty waiting room to sneak another picture of the kids area where they had a fun house mirror!

I know, I know...why so long in the face? Yes, ha ha, that's very funny. Can we get back to me now, Mr. Attention Hog?

Fifteen minutes later, we paid for our parking, picked up the drugs and spent the rest of our totally waiting-room-free evening in dumbfounded awe. I could almost live in this God-forsaken city.


* * * NGIP SHOUT OUTS * * *

If you ever wanted to know how to make your own ribbon-bound books, Diane from Much of a Muchness is willing to tell you how, step by step. Or, if you're as lazy as I am, you can simply buy them instead. Hers are gorgeous. I'm certain mine would look like origami by the time I gave up. I think she plans to make them and sell them, just go over there and bug her, ask her if they're ready yet. Or check our her list of other book binders. And thank you, Diane, for adding Nanny Goats to your blog roll!


Kimberly has six kids, hence the name of her blog: An Even Half Dozen. As Kimberly puts it: "I think somebody left the Vacancy sign lit one night and they just kind of showed up". A big thank you to Kimberly for adding NGIP to her blog roll!