EDIT: At the suggestion of another Venter below, I'm adding my GoFundMe link here, as this thread is pretty huge at this point. Again, I'm truly embarrassed to have to go down this road, but I have to admit that I need help: https://gofund.me/400179bb
Hi, all --
I am deeply embarrassed to be asking this, but I'm frankly desperate for a way to avoid the ER due to a persistent high fever. I am categorically not asking for a remote diagnosis by the Vent, but I could use any ideas you might have about possible alternatives to the ER.
I felt rough for a few hours last Friday before taking my temperature around lunchtime. It was 100.6 at that point, so I took 1000mg acetaminophen, which helped some. But that evening, it got over 102, and it hasn't dropped below 100.9 since then in spite of alternating 1000mg acetaminophen, 800mg ibuprofen, and 550mg aspirin occasionally. This is day six. It got up to 104.1 last night and is currently 103.1 and rising, as it does every afternoon.
I went to an urgent care clinic on Sunday, where they ruled out strep, flu, and COVID. Due to my presentation, the MD there that day (and she was an MD) presumed it may be bacterial and prescribed me cefdinir. (For what it's worth, I'm allergic to sulfa meds, including Bactrim.)
When the fever remained high through yesterday, I returned to the same clinic, where a different MD I've seen several times over the years checked me out. He repeated those rapid viral tests and added a chest X-ray and basic urine screen: no findings on those, either. He switched me to Augmentin. He told me that if the fever reaches day 7, "that makes it more significant." Day 7 will be tomorrow.
I called the clinic again just now, to ask if I should plan to come back there tomorrow, and the receptionist (who didn't pass me along to a provider) said I should go to the ER tomorrow.
An ER visit would absolutely ruin me financially right now. I'm not exaggerating. I make an okay salary, which means I wouldn't qualify for financial assistance from the hospital. But I have no choice but to spend over half of that salary on rent every month in order to live near enough to my kids to take them to school/activities or see them more that every other weekend. (My former marital home, where they still live half the time, is in Johns Creek).
Can anybody think of any possible option other than knowingly bankrupting myself with an ER visit tomorrow? I was a patient at North Atlanta Primary Care for a couple of years, but I haven't been back there since early 2022. But I don't know if they'd be equipped to figure this out, either.
What do y'all think?
(And please, try to be kind here if you can. I feel absolutely horrible right now. If you think I should move away from my kids to make my finances work, maybe keep that to yourself, as it's not helpful.)
-- 00 Dawg
Hi, all --
I am deeply embarrassed to be asking this, but I'm frankly desperate for a way to avoid the ER due to a persistent high fever. I am categorically not asking for a remote diagnosis by the Vent, but I could use any ideas you might have about possible alternatives to the ER.
I felt rough for a few hours last Friday before taking my temperature around lunchtime. It was 100.6 at that point, so I took 1000mg acetaminophen, which helped some. But that evening, it got over 102, and it hasn't dropped below 100.9 since then in spite of alternating 1000mg acetaminophen, 800mg ibuprofen, and 550mg aspirin occasionally. This is day six. It got up to 104.1 last night and is currently 103.1 and rising, as it does every afternoon.
I went to an urgent care clinic on Sunday, where they ruled out strep, flu, and COVID. Due to my presentation, the MD there that day (and she was an MD) presumed it may be bacterial and prescribed me cefdinir. (For what it's worth, I'm allergic to sulfa meds, including Bactrim.)
When the fever remained high through yesterday, I returned to the same clinic, where a different MD I've seen several times over the years checked me out. He repeated those rapid viral tests and added a chest X-ray and basic urine screen: no findings on those, either. He switched me to Augmentin. He told me that if the fever reaches day 7, "that makes it more significant." Day 7 will be tomorrow.
I called the clinic again just now, to ask if I should plan to come back there tomorrow, and the receptionist (who didn't pass me along to a provider) said I should go to the ER tomorrow.
An ER visit would absolutely ruin me financially right now. I'm not exaggerating. I make an okay salary, which means I wouldn't qualify for financial assistance from the hospital. But I have no choice but to spend over half of that salary on rent every month in order to live near enough to my kids to take them to school/activities or see them more that every other weekend. (My former marital home, where they still live half the time, is in Johns Creek).
Can anybody think of any possible option other than knowingly bankrupting myself with an ER visit tomorrow? I was a patient at North Atlanta Primary Care for a couple of years, but I haven't been back there since early 2022. But I don't know if they'd be equipped to figure this out, either.
What do y'all think?
(And please, try to be kind here if you can. I feel absolutely horrible right now. If you think I should move away from my kids to make my finances work, maybe keep that to yourself, as it's not helpful.)
-- 00 Dawg
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