Ode to the Minute Clinic

It doesnt happen that often, me calling in sick to work. But Thats what happened on friday. I left work early on Thursday and came home and slept. By the time I woke up at 9pm, I was miserable. I called in for Friday. I slept on and off Thurs night. Friday I did the same. I slept some, was awake for watching Judge shows, slept some more, more TV, etc. I had the typical flu/cold stuff, fever off and on, cough, sneezing, sore throat. Saturday I was feeling a bit better. But then Saturday night hit. The most uninterrupted sleep I got was about 2 hours. My throat was so sore and there was nothing that was making it better. At about 8am I got up and decided to check out if there was someplace I could be seen on a Sunday. I wasnt excited about an emergency room visit, and copay for a sore throat. I remembered a friend saying something about a Minute Clinic at CVS in Woodbury.

So I went online...google "Minute clinic" and it brings up their homepage. There is this little box where you type in your zip code and it will bring up the local clinics. What do you know, the CVS location is open at 10 on Sundays. So we went. Someone got there right before I did, so I had to wait about 10 minutes. Then Linda called me in. In my whispery, raspy voice i told her my symptoms. She decided to do a strep test.

Its been a few years since Ive had strep...but I had it many times as a kid. I had forgotten how fun it is to be gagged by the swab as they collect their sample. I also remember it was later in my youth that they had the "5 minute test." which i was told has a 2% false negative rate. The test was negative. Good that i havent infected people with strep, bad that my throat will get no relief from a prescription. Linda told me the usual stuff: gargle with salt water, drink plenty of fluids, OTC drugs to help with symptoms....i dont think she told me to get sleep, but i intended to do that. So, for just my typical co-pay i was seen on a sunday, for a sore throat. during all of this, my husband mentioned that Walgreens will be getting something like a minute clinic. What a great idea. Its nice to have the option for something routine to be seen someplace other than the ER. Thank God for whoever thought up the idea and for the nice people that work there!