Mathoms, etc.

I've had a headache for a couple of days but on Monday I started getting nauseous. I go through my usual tragic thoughts: Am I having a stroke? Do I have a tumor? By yesterday, every time I bent down or turned my head I felt like I was going to hurl. I went to the doctor on my lunch break. I was all prepared for a diagnosis of "some bug that's going around", but instead, the Nurse Practitioner diagnosed me with an ear infection. What in tarnation is a 38 year old woman doing getting an ear infection? No, that's not the shameful part. Anyway, she sent me home and gave me a prescription for antibiotics.

At the pharmacy, I'm second in line and there's another woman behind me. A wide-eyed and obviously frazzled woman arrives, sees the line and asks if there is another pharmacy nearby. Nobody answers. I think I went into that mob mentality of "someone else will help". The anxious woman asks again, "Anybody?" The woman in front of me finally answers and she goes on her not-so-merry way. The woman who helped commented that it wasn't such a long line, why couldn't she wait? Those were my thoughts too. Plus the fact that she seemed to have a mental disorder of sorts. The woman behind me said she saw her at the local ambulatory care, and did seem to be in a lot of pain.

For someone who's supposed to help people in pain, I failed miserably.