Oh And I Should Mention

On Saturday I called our eight one one system.

For those of you not in the province, it's a free system we have that will connect you to medical advice.  Calls usually include a bit of a wait, but it's free and it's wonderful and I'm very grateful we have access to this.

The reason I called is that this new to me (but not the world) powdery antibiotic came with the instructions to take a second dose 72 hours later if symptoms hadn't improved.  And because my symptoms were so "light" I didn't know if they had improved enough or if I should take another dose.  I know it's not good to take an antibiotic and not completely kill the bacteria but I also know there's no good to come from taking antibiotics unnecessarily and taking a second dose would mean another day off work (to deal with the symptoms) at least.  But what if I still wasn't ok?  

It was a Saturday so my doctors office was closed, so I couldn't even attempt to ask about a call with her or anything.  I would also have to get the pharmacy to get the second dose ready for me and I really didn't know what I should do.  

So I got to talk to a nurse (after about half an hour's wait on hold) and she agreed it wasn't that straightforward of an answer but we came up with a plan of action that we were both comfortable with and it involved drinking a "bucket load" of water to try to "flush anything out" and to see if I could eliminate some things that were making me feel "off" (like anxiety about this whole situation....)

The kind of ironic thing is that when you are making an honest attempt to drink WAY more water than usual, you end up needing to go pee way more than usual, which is one of the things I'd been aware of as a "symptom" at the start of all this.  Ha!

But long story shorter, I spent my weekend drinking a lot lot of water and taking the herbal "remedies" and I did not take a second dose of the antibiotic and I have a call with my doctor this week (about something else) in case I need to follow up.

But the point of this post was to say how awesome it is to have access to health care personnel via a phone call.  Very reassuring to be able to talk to someone and ask questions of someone with more knowledge and access to information than I have!

I'm grateful for the health care system I'm a part of and I'm glad I have access and I'm glad I have a family doctor for sure. 

And I mean here I am writing blog posts, which I wasn't up for doing a handful of days ago so I think it's safe to say I'm feeling better than I have in a while, you know?  

(But also let's hope I keep feeling better and didn't just accidentally create antibiotic resistant bacteria in my urinary tract!!!!)