Unfiltered Story #99116

When I was very young, I used to have chronic tonsillitis. My parents were in the Air Force, and for whatever reason, the Air Force doctors didn’t want to remove my tonsils (one told my mother “we don’t do that anymore” which was a lie). Luckily it stopped eventually, and I was ok until my early 20s. Then suddenly, at 21, I started getting it again. This happened after my third round of increasingly strong antibiotics had failed. I had a mild fever, and my tonsils were so swollen that I couldn’t swallow solids and could only manage liquids with great difficulty and pain. They were visible without a light or other instruments if my opened my mouth wide enough. Also, by then I belonged to an HMO (the one that starts with a K and is simultaneously loved and hated) and was trying different doctors, taking whoever they had available. I’d never seen this doctor before.

Nurse: [my name]?
Me: *follows her to the back, gets weighed*
Nurse: *stops me in the middle of the hallway* The doctor’s not quite finished with his last patient, wait here a moment.
Me: *waits, thinking this is very unusual, I don’t understand why they called me back if they don’t have an exam room ready yet*
Nurse: *walks away and leaves me standing in the hallway*
[A weirdly long time passes]
Doctor: *appearing out of nowhere, seemingly very busy and rushed* Are you [My Name]?
Me: *can barely talk, but nods*
Doctor: Ok what’s the problem?
Me: *still baffled that this is happening in the hallway* My tonsils are swollen, I had tonsillitis and I think it came back-
Doctor: *cuts me off, sighs like I’m being difficult* ok open your mouth
Me: *opens mouth*
Doctor: *pulls out his light and a tongue depresser, inspects my throat* Hmmm…. Yes, that looks like some pretty bad post-nasal drip. You have a cold, here’s a prescription. *Scribbles on a pad he pulled from his pocket, hands it to me, and walks away, leaving me standing in the hallway without even giving me a chance to respond*
Me: *looks down at the prescription. It’s for Sudafed* o….kay

I had to make yet another appointment with another doctor to get some actual antibiotics again. I went through that dance three more times before somebody finally looked at my history and decided I should get my tonsils removed. By the time I had my surgery, the infection was so bad that they had me on the strongest antibiotics available in pill form (the kind they hesitate to give people who don’t have, like, MRSA) and I was still a little infected when they performed the operation!