hope all is well in your world. i've been overcoming bronchitis and it's been a slog through the healthcare system to get it diagnosed and treated properly. i was initially sick for a week, it was gradually getting worse and worse, the coughing and disruption in my sleeping patterns. by the time i got to the doctor after 7 days, i was sleeping sporadically, 30 to 45 minutes at a time and then coughing brutally spitting out phlegm and drenched in sweat.
those were long nights, and by the time i saw a doctor it was at a walk in clinic here in kamloops, where my visit with the doctor was all of 3 or 4 minutes and out the door i was getting x rays on my lungs in case it was pnuemonia and a prescription for 2 inhalers to help me breathe. two days later i went back to the walk in clinic and saw another doctor, an older one who actually seemed to care and took a few minutes longer to get information from me. i received another prescription this time for antibiotics for bronchitis which i've been using and am feeling better more and more.
this made me wonder why the doctors hammered through patients so quickly, do they get paid per patient and time is money? why if there is a "doctor shortage," in town does this one walk in clinic have 14 doctors on the roster? is it more lucrative to work out of a walk in clinic as opposed to a private practice? i remember when i actually had a family doctor, a doctor i had for 10 years, my visits with him were at least 20 minutes and he listened carefully and calmly. the doctors in walk in clinics never sit, pace around and make what i believe are rushed decisions and you have to be careful about your diagnosis. get a second opinion if you don't feel better or trust in what you have been told.
one positive thing that has come out of this bout of bronchitis is i now have a singular driven goal to improve my health mentally, physically and spiritually. i never want to get sick like this again. i'm also going to work on a series of art, drawings and paintings about illness. personify illness. in the form of monsters. so, with that i've included a few drawings from another artist named John Kenn, who is fantastic at drawing monsters on yellow post it note pads. to me, they represent fears which can be illness, it's a starting point for me at the very least.
take good care of yourself,
Cb.
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