I go in my birthday month, September, for my physical. Last year, my doctor said, “Well, it’s been four years, time for another mammogram.”
And we know how that’s turning out!
I’m very, very afraid of doctors. I go when I need a prescription refill, have something that I think might result in death or permanent disability, or if I have something that’s making me really miserable that I think they can do something about (something like an ear infection would fall into this category).
If I had a cold that had stayed on for four days, but my snot wasn’t green or dark yellow all day long, no way would I go. Probably viral, and if it is, there’s nothing they can do but tell you to rest and drink fluids (which you already know).
If I were still in the Bay Area, I’d so be asking who your doctor is.
IANADoctor, but I really doubt it. It’d be more likely to give you diarrhea than help you fight the cold.
Even if it didn’t lead to pregnancy, you might still get a yeast infection, which is no fun at all. I will often get at least a mild one any time I take antibiotics.
I took a two-hour nap. Just got back from the store, where I bought two bottles of NyQuil, two bottles of DayQuil, a box of Chloraseptic lozenges, a bottle of vitamin C pills, a bottle of calcium/magnesium/zinc pills, a gallon of orange juice, and a gallon of apple juice.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m sick, but people seemed not to know how to shop. Blocking the aisles and generally getting in the way. Then at a stop sign a woman (BC plates) rolled into the back of a large pick-up truck. It’s not as if she didn’t see it, as they were just moving forward after someone vacated the intersection. Did they pull over? No, they got out of their vehicles right there in the road. Aiyiyiyiyi… At least the regularly stupid bint at the convenience store was acting abnormally astute today.
Anyway, still have the cold. Still resting. Increasing fluids and adding variety beyond coffee and water. The laryngitis is still freaking me out a bit, as I’ve never experienced it before. Not seeing a doctor.
I never went to a doctor because I was sick.
I go to doctors for weird stuff that won’t go away. The last time I went was because I had some sort of bacterial infection.
I’m 22.
It’s harder to get antibiotics these days than it is to get narcotics. I’ll probably not visit another doctor until the day I die.
It takes a lot for me to go. I don’t get sick often, but coincidentally I was very sick about a month ago. If you’d like to know how much it took for me to go, here’s a little TMI. It’s not gory or obscene, just some people really don’t like puking:
[SPOILER]Spontaneoulsy I started throwing up every twenty minutes, you could set a metronome to it. When everything came up, I continued to puke mucus and bile. So I sipped on water so that when I would puke at least it would just be take. This went on for two days straight, literally. No sleep, just vomit. The weird part was that I didn’t even feel sick. I just puked and puked and didn’t sleep. The puking slowed down after two days, but I still couldn’t sleep. I had an appointment with a psychiatrist five days later already and and she sent me to the urgent care department of the hospital.
Five ays without sleep, that was the worst part. I didn’t even care about the trash bucket brimming with vomit, that I sometimes did and sometimes did not get to when I needed to. I just wanted to sleep. By that point I was even beginning to have hallucinations. Bizarre shit.[/SPOILER]
I know when I’m getting over a cold when my ears start to pop and clear up.
I don’t know how old you are, Johnny, and I’m not trying to be mean, but it’s hard for me to imagine somebody who is panicking and thinking of making a doctor’s appointment because their ears are stopped up and their voice is going.
If you don’t have a fever, you’re not fighting off some massive infection, and if you are feeling “fine” except for generic cold symptoms, plugged up ears, and a hoarse and/or missing voice, I don’t see how the problem could be horribly serious. I’m not being facetious; I am genuinely just a bit baffled that you’ve never had what I would call “a bad cold” before. I guess you’re lucky!
I’ve always hated bad colds because they’re not life-threatening and you don’t go to the doc so you don’t get a note to excuse calling in…they just make your life kinda really awful for a few days. This doesn’t mean anything is seriously wrong with you. There just isn’t a cure for the common cold, other than time.
Say I get an ear infection. If I ignore it, or try and treat it myself, my ear’ll hurt for a week. If I go to a doctor for some antibiotics it’ll stop hurting within a couple of days. Why shouldn’t I see a doctor? It’s just basic maintenance.
I only visit a doctor when either I have NO idea what my malady is, or when I DO know and know that some presription medication is necessary.
Colds and flu’s don’t come under those auspices.
My doctor said to me I haven’t see you for a while .
I said yeah I’ve been ill.
These days I usually go when I get severe upper and/or lower respiratory infections. The 2006 doozy had the doc thinking it had gone to pneumonia (the first lot of damn antibiotics kicked me around almost as bad as the bugs). It wasn’t pneumonia, but it must have sounded that way through the stethoscope. The late 2007 one was nearly as bad, but I didn’t leave it as long (or travel overseas while I had it.)
Only other reason I go there more frequently than once in the proverbial blue moon is to have the annual 'flu jab. Only that’s done by the nurse, rather than the doc.
I avoid doctors like there is no tomorrow. I am lucky enough to have an employer who trusts it’s employees. I have just had 3 days off work because of a HIDEOUS cold and while my boss wanted me to go to the doctor for my wellbeing, it certainly wasn’t expected.
The answer is…I go to the doctor when death is imminent
It’s not basic maintenance, though. It’s extra. Letting your immune system take care of your body is basic maintenance. Going to the doctor is like…calling in a hazmat team to clean up a broken mercury thermometer or CFL bulb. Sure, there’s a little teeny bit of logic there, but really, you’re perfectly capable of dealing with it yourself more efficiently, and for a hell of a lot less money.
(Plus, yeah, I have a problem with going to someone and saying, “I don’t know you but you have a vested financial illness in me needing medications/further doctors visits, so I’m going to trust you to ignore that financial interest and give me an accurate, unbiased opinion.” I think anyone who doesn’t see that as a problem is incredibly naive.)
I hope for your own good you also go for “preventive maintenance.” There are problems which are not obvious but if diagnosed early can be successfully treated.
Update, FWIW/IAC. Coughing less. Generally feeling fine. One ear still plugged up. Voice still MIA. Appetite is back. Taking lots of vitamin C and the other supplements, drinking orange juice and apple juice. Staying uncomfortably warm, on the assumption that a higher body temperature will help. Firehose-butt, probably due to the juice. I’ll go to work tomorrow. (Normally a telecommuting day, but I haven’t been in the office since last Monday.)
I’ll go to the doctor when I have some sort of pain that’s bad enough to disturb my sleep, impede my mobility, etc.
With the respiratory stuff, I’ll only go to the doctor if it gets better then gets worse again, as in running a fever when I wasn’t running one before. For me, that’s usually a sign that a secondary bacterial infection has set in.
This year I went to the doctor for the first time for cold that had lingered for a couple weeks (started with a 3-day fever, persisted with lingering sore throat and breathing problems). After a 3-second examination, he prescribed me antibiotics, which didn’t make much sense to me, since it seemed more likely to be a virus. I took them anyway. It held on for another week or so, and I was fine.
Next time, I’ll probably just take more time off work and skip the doctor. I’m 30, and had never previously been sick for more than a week.
I go to the doctor when something is wrong that I can’t identify, or when I know what it is and it’s been around a week of misery with no improvement-- I figure at that point, I need a chemical assist. (If I know it’s a virus for which there’s no antiviral, though, I won’t go, because there’s no point.)
I have not been to the doctor for a cold or flu since I was a young child, because I’ve really only had one to speak of since then, and I didn’t have insurance on that occasion.
I have been to a doctor for any affliction at all exactly once since I was a young child, and that was because I had some unidentified and obvious vesicles developing on my forehead (turned out to be shingles). I’m glad I went, and thank you Valtrex.