Good Girls, Sinuses and Antibiotics

This always happens.

I go to the doctor, knowing, as I did today, that I have a sinus infection. This one is a whopper, a horrible, painful, miserable, ear-popper. Moving my head is agony. Blowing my nose, worse, and of course I only have to blow my nose oh, every forty-seven seconds. Plus, you really don’t want to have a sinus infection if you’re going to change altitude by 600 feet or so a couple times a day, and here, that’s just what we call doing the school run.

I. Am. Miserable.

And so I hied me off to the doctor, who proposed that I might just be getting a sinus infection! Maybe it was just a baby sinus infection! And maybe proper use of OTC medicines would just nip that puppy in the bud! Just in case, though, she gave me a prescription for an antibiotic.

I was feeling just a tiny bit better at this point, probably all the amazing adrenaline from actually getting out of bed and driving to the doctor, and I agreed. Clearly this was the best course of action! I do not want to contribute to the greater antibiotic resistance of the world. I want this puppies to work when we need them!

So I popped into CVS, and I bought the OTC stuff she recommended, and then I thought, well, I COULD just fill the prescription. Just in case.
But she was so nice not to make me call tomorrow and beg for it. She trusted me. And–antibiotics! Resistance! The end of the world, plague, flu, dogs mating with cats, really wild things!

Plus, what if she checked? To seen if I’d done it? They would surely put a mark on my permanent record, and never, ever let me have a prescription again, probably not even if I really needed it.

So I didn’t do it. And now I feel awful. My head is going to explode, right after both of my eardrums pop, and I will never hear again. And the store is half an hour (and 600 vertical feet, maybe more) away. But no, I am stuck with giving the OTC stuff an unwilling chance.

Sometimes I really wish I wasn’t such a good girl. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say I wish I wasn’t so paranoid. Because if I was 100% sure she’d never know, I’d be clutching those antibiotics right now.


9 Responses to “Good Girls, Sinuses and Antibiotics”

  1. Paula says:

    I went to a new doctor who made me feel like I was begging for oxycontin when all I wanted was a zpack for my sinus infection. She told me she’d send one to the pharmacy but not to fill it for a couple of days in case I didn’t need it. Apparently she didn’t realize that when she sent it by blackberry to the pharmacy, it gets filled automatically.

  2. oh dear, I am the same way!! Pick it up ASAP tomorrow and I hope you feel better soon!

  3. slawebb says:

    Have you ever tried a Neti Pot? They really do work for all kinds if head colds AND for sinus infections. I have make shifted one out of a unused peribottle and they make these really great and easy ones like this https://www.nasopure.com/. Hope you feel better soon.

  4. Your sinuses, my lungs, clearly neither is interested in playing nicely even though we keep asking them to. I would f gone straight for the antibiotics, resistance be damned cause I do not have time to be sicker than I already – not that you should feel as though you need to follow my bad example.

  5. Lisen says:

    Did you get the drugs today? Are you feeling any better? Hope so! Thinking of you.

  6. Damaris says:

    Ugh! Sinus infections are horrible. I hope you are now better. I live in the suburbs but close to everything (just 40 min from Manhattan, where I grew up) so I can’t imagine having to drive too far to get medicine or anything else. Good luck.

  7. Paula says:

    Honestly, I’d have just filled the scrip. If she asked, you could say you didn’t want to have to go out again if you felt worse. I hope you’re feeling better. I get a lot of sinus infections and can empathize (although thankfully here in southern MA, I’m not changing altitude to go to the school; I think that would kill me).

  8. KJ says:

    I filled it the next day–and now it’s Saturday, and I STILL feel like crap, but slightly better crap. I also feel like I’ve been sick, one way or another, since July, and that seems wrong. Perhaps it’s time to consider a diet that includes something besides Oreos.

  9. Dusty says:

    I would have filled it because I know as soon as I get a sinus infection that the OTC stuff is not even going to touch it. Hope you are feeling better soon!