Something's ringing in my ears and it's not my conscience

That is the reason why I found myself queuing impatiently at Patients First in Glorietta 3 yesterday after work.

I thought it would be just another regular check-up: vitals, weight, few minutes of Q&A, write my prescription, done.

But it turned out my dilemma is more complicated than I thought it was.

First, I was checked by an MD who asked me to undergo an x-ray exam.

Okay.

But it took forever for the laboratory folks to call me. And when I was eventually X-rayed, they have to redo two of the three perspectives / angles because they were blurry. So, I waited for a few more minutes before going through another round of x-ray. Only to be told that the result won't be coming out until Saturday, but that I have to check with an ENT doctor anyway.

The ENT lady doctor was nice. Asked me sorts of questions. I repeated what I told the other doctor: headache, ringing and pressure in my ears, no colds. She asked me how I am doing with my breastfeeding. Told her I just quit pumping during work hours, but that I still night feed and pump at home, after work. Just so she knows I won't take steroids, if she's thinking of giving me one.

Now, just so she knows what is really wrong with me - she suspects that I have blocked sinuses - she told me that she has to check my frontal sinuses with a nasal endoscope. Then she showed me this:

And I wished so hard that I did not leave Noi to wait outside, while I will be (in my mind) lobotomized in this office. He did not see me suffer in the labor room when I gave birth to our son, he should at least see this being inserted into my nostrils!

When it was done, she drew little circles in her medical report / record to probably capture in paper the appearance of my sinuses. No masses, thank God. But she said that the mucus need to dry up. Apparently, I had been living with stuffed sinuses for most of my life. I was given antibiotics and nasal spray to de-clog my sinuses, and I was assured that they are safe even while breast feeding.


And the X-ray? She said that I no longer need one. Because I already had nasal endoscopy and she's seen all that she needs to see to give me a diagnosis.

The two-hour wait at the laboratory came back to me and I almost feel a rising anger towards the first doctor who checked me and recommended the X-ray.