Dear walk-in clinic doctor,
I realize you are super busy and that everyone in the city has a cold or the flu right now. However, last week when I was in the same clinic because I could barely stand up straight, you guys told me I had the flu. That was grand, I went home for a week, stayed in bed, drank liquids. You said I should be fine by Friday. It’s now Monday. My throat is totally messed, my lungs feel like they’re on fire, I can hardly talk, and when I cough every 2 minutes, I feel like I’m going to pass out.
When I came back to see you today, because I’m obviously MUCH worse off that I was last week, thank you so much for barely looking at me and saying “you have the flu. Go home and sleep for a few days”. I’m glad you are able to read what the other doctor wrote down. I’m glad you had time to look at me, but honestly? I’m seriously concerned about the fact that I can hardly breathe…
—Can’t Hardly Breathe
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2009.
Maybe that 811 number could help you? It could be an emergency case, it’s worth a call at least.
ohnogogo’s right — call 811. They’re FANTASTIC. I’ve called them a few times.
I can only imagine which walk in clinic you went to…you may have pneumonia or bronchitis (sounds like pneumonia, maybe). Did they listen to your lungs? Afaik, not being able to breathe isn’t a symptom of the flu.
It ticks me off when doctors do that, to be honest. One doctor told my dad he had the flu when he was actually about to go into a coma from hyperglycemia. When he insisted that it wasn’t the flu they did blood work and found out he was diabetic.
Anyway, my suggestion is to call the 811 number then head to another walk in clinic or the ER — if it *is* pneumonia, you’ll need a chest x ray. Are you coughing up green/yellow/blue-ish crap? Don’t listen to the fuckwads at that clinic — they’re obviously morons. Go see another doctor at another clinic or head to the ER if you can’t breathe!!!
If it hurts alot to breathe in and you have otherwise flu like symptoms…it is HIGHLY likely that you have an upper lobe (part of you lungs) infected with pneumonia. I had mild pneumonia one winter and didn’t take it seriously enough (cough drops etc) because I didn’t think it was anything other than the flu…until I passed out at work and had to get rushed to the emergency room. It was the worst “sick” experience of my life…thought I was going to die (and it was only mild pneumonia), every time I tried to breathe it was like getting stabbed in the lung.
Good luck and feel better soon
I’ve never had a good experience with walk-in clinics. It seems that most of them are only interested in getting you back out the door in any way possible. I hope you find someone who can actually help you!
There’s a walk in clinic in Clayton park by the sobeys. They used to be just for patients of the doctors but now they’re for anyone and they’re good.
Don’t go to the walk in at superstore in Joe Howe. I’ve heard nothing but bad things about them.
As for you flu, you should probably head down to emerg (811 is great but they’ll tell you the same thing.) if you’ve had it for over a week they’ll prob do x rays and prescribe something for you.
Good luck!
With all due respect, Virgomom – if the OP has the flu, the last thing she should do is go to the emergency room. There’s nothing they can do to treat her, and people who go the ER with colds and flus are a big part of the reason why people with real emergencies have to wait 8+ hours for treatment. Do you not see health officals on the news every week begging people with the flu to stay away from the ER?
Make an appointment with your doctor, or go to a walk-in clinic, and be insistent. Say you want x-rays ordered. Don’t take no for an answer. But the ER is not the place for you.
OP, in 1918 the flu KILLED MOST of those who were infected. They couldn’t control their fever and most ended up succumbing to pneumonia. The flu will run at this same severe course for about 5 weeks. You will be delirious. It will be everything you can do to kill the life saving fever control pills in your stomach long enough to be absorbed. Gravol knows nothing about vomiting and when all the water in your body pools in the lungs and you think you’re going to die, the fever will break… as long as you control your fever and can keep fluids going in you will survive. SICK is what you are and it’s not nice. Get well soon.
I had the same issue the last time I went to the walk in on SG. Doctor told me I probably had a virus. She was getting ready to leave, and I said “I work in a nursing home… can you be more specific or tell me what I can do to get better soon?” (they really don’t like you going to work if you have the flu, it could potentially kill someone with a compromised immune system) She said to take tylenol because it would make me feel better, drink fluids and sleep. Yeah, my mom probably would have told me that without looking at me. Waste of time. I have had better luck with the emergency after hours clinic at my doctor’s office. Unfortunately, I this time I didn’t have a way of getting there after hours without taking the bus – not a great place to be when you’re sick.
The standard flu last 7-10 days, but if you have a fever it means a poptentially worse condition, do yourself a favor bite the bullit and go to the ER
I suggest you go home and lie down for a few days. I’m no doctor but I have a feeling that might be what one will tell you.
You know, if the “standard” flu (whatever that is) was to last only 7-10 days it wouldn’t be a news item nor manage to kill off otherwise healthy adults. Too many people think a cold or food poisoning or alcohol poisoning is “the flu”. It’s not. You’re looking at several WEEKS of nursing symptoms, Davis is right. There’s nothing you can do but manage your symptoms because it’s a virus. Even our best anti-viral drugs provide only a slowing-mechanism designed to ease symptoms and they don’t work for everybody considering the side-effects are often more grueling than the viral symptoms. Anti-viral drugs replace the RNA required for virus replication with an inert, synthetic material effectively slowing the progression but it’s hardly a cure… ask any AIDS patient.
Do you really think the world is reporting on Swine Flu because you might have to stay in bed for a WHOLE week? Think again and DON’T go to the walk-in thinking it’s okay to spread the infection to a smaller number of people than you would in the ER. Stay home! Manage your fever and you’ll survive. If you’re unable to replenish liquids THEN go to the ER where they can rehydrate you interveinously. That’s not going to happen at a walk-in so don’t waste anybody’s time, don’t waste tax payer dollars requesting lung x-rays to confirm you have the flu like the doctor said and there’s no help for it, don’t go out in public making each person you come into contact with either sick or contagious, instead, stay home until you stop oozing!
Jennie, “…be insistent. Say you want x-rays ordered. Don’t take no for an answer…”
kay, “…don’t waste tax payer dollars requesting lung x-rays…”
WTF?… it’s obviously too early for you “Desi”, go back to bed.
I hope nobody actually takes medical advice from this thread. It’s confusing and contradictory and potentially dangerous. No one can diagnose you without seeing you.
Which is why I say go to the ER — if your lungs are full of fluid, they’ll likely send you for an x ray to confirm pneumonia. I used to get pneumonia on a yearly basis in October (since I was 15) and it’s HELL on wheels. I got a pneumonia vaccine last winter and so far, I’ve been healthy!
Finally got in to see my GP (difficult, she only works 3 days a week for 3 hours each morning) after hacking and coughing on the phone to her receptionist who claimed she was “booked for another 3 weeks” but somehow found me an emergency spot.
Sinus Infection and Bronchitis. The last guy I saw at the walkin (which btw virgomom is the one in CP by the drugstore) said “you don’t need antibiotics, go home and sleep it off”.
I’m happy to report that the antibiotics my GP gave me the next day have returned me back to almost normal.
And, yes.. I have stayed out of the public for the most part. I work in a medical centre myself, and only went to a walk-in clinic because I needed to know when I might be able to return to work.
You know…maybe it IS just the flu. And since the flu is a virus, there’s absolutely dick-all walk-in clinic doctors, or anyone else on the face of the earth, can do about it. You just have to get better, and it takes time. That’s why the flu sucks.