Got my money’s worth out of the health insurance today.<\/p>\n
First, the dentist. A second very, very detailed exam by a dental intern (is there such a thing? Is it called the zamboogen-year or something … or can I just call them interns?). I’ll be back tomorrow for my 2 fillings. In a week I’ll be going in for a “veneer” to replace a “temporary” reconstruction I got back when I was, like 15. Why not?<\/p>\n
Then, back to the doctor. Hey doc, your antibiotics didn’t do a darn thing about my cough (I’ve named it “Lungfish,” by the way). The doctor seemed smart, and he listened to me. That’s all I ask, really. So I got nasal steroids, a super-duper inhaler (literally, albuterol on steroids), an appointment for a “spirometry” test where I blow … as hard as I can, and a chest X-ray. We talked about the fact that I live with cats (just like I have for a decade now), and also that I do get some exercise, from time to time. <\/p>\n
My chest X-ray was “negative.” I found this unsatisfying and pestered my medical family for a better answer. “Negative” is a sign. It’s a polarity. It’s not an interpretation of a picture, unless we’re talking pure artistic opinion. I was told that “negative,” is relative to the detective power of the picture in screening for heart disease, various forms of lung gunk, neck gunk, and other gunk.<\/p>\n
So the plan is that I snort the rose-smelling steroids and breathe the minty gasses every day for two weeks. If I go back and “it worked,” then I we smile at each other and call the fact that I have to do this for the rest of my life “Asthma.” Or maybe we tell each other some story about snot dripping down my throat and irritating my bronchi. <\/p>\n
Or something. I don’t know.<\/p>\n
Hopefully by the time my follow-up comes around, I’ll have my 23 and me<\/a> results to bring in. “Hey! I got my genome done, wanna see?” If he reacts with any sort of curiosity at all, he’s got a patient for life.<\/p>\n All this for $15, plus the co-pay on the prescriptions. Not bad, says I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Got my money’s worth out of the health insurance today.<\/p>\n First, the dentist. A second very, very detailed exam by a dental intern (is there such a thing? Is it called the zamboogen-year or something … or can I just call them interns?). I’ll be back tomorrow for my 2 fillings. In a week I’ll . . . → Read More: For $15 you play all day<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}