Last Thursday my youngest kid woke up and croaked out the words that I dread hearing from him because he’s always correct in his diagnosis: “I think I have strep.” Off we went to his favorite urgent care location and favorite pharmacy (you would have a favorite urgent care and pharmacy too if you got strep as often as he does).

The next day was Friday, and luckily the amoxicillin had kicked in and he was well enough to go to school. I happened to have my annual physical that day, something I had been dreading for many reasons but ended up going well.

On Monday morning I woke up with a rash on my arms and legs, and swollen, painful joints all over my body. I was alarmed, especially since I had just had a mysterious high fever and no other symptoms about a week before this. I’m not the kind of person who runs off to urgent care at the first sign of illness, but this was weird enough I felt an urgent care visit was warranted and that is how I ended up spending three hours at urgent care on Monday morning and then walking away without any real diagnosis.

My youngest kid had an appointment with the ear, nose & throat surgeon on Monday as well, after school. That doctor was running behind, and we ended up spending more than two hours at the specialty clinic.

And I have to go back today to follow up with my primary care doctor about my ongoing joint pain and rash!

This is why old people are tired all the time. It is exhausting to spend so much time at the doctor’s office. Waiting for the nurse, waiting for the doctor, waiting for the lab. I have great sympathy for those with chronic conditions who have to spend so much time managing their healthcare.

Anyway, having what basically amounts to arthritis in most of my joints this week has been an interesting experiment in getting old. Who knew that buttons could pose such a challenge? Squeezing out a washcloth is both difficult and painful.

Even more disturbing, my husband asked if I wanted him to come along to the appointment today. How sick does he think I am?! I have definitely not reached the “needs a companion at every appointment” stage yet, and don’t intend to for a long time, even if this is the beginning of something chronic (I don’t think it is).

On the positive side: every single medical assistant, patient registration specialist, nurse, doctor, surgeon, and phlebotomist that we have interacted with in the past week has been stellar.