Health Care?

It is with great sadness I report that I have a sinus infection. I figure this out about 4:00 am this morning when I couldn't sleep because of drainage. I arose this morning and completed a few tasks about the house before heading off to the doctor's office. I arrived promptly at 11:55, and was called back to see the doctor at 2:15. After repeating the list of symptoms that I had already written down, informing the nurse of the medicines to which I am allergic (written elsewhere in my chart had she bothered to look), and submitting to temperature, pulse, and blood pressure checks, the nurse departed at 2:21 stating that the doctor would be in shortly. Fast forward to 3:05 when the nurse practitioner arrives. I'm not saying that nurse practitioners are not qualified to dispense medical advice as a whole, BUT this woman clearly had no business being employed by a medical office. After reconfirming all of the information I had written down and told the nurse (who wrote it down again), she proudly pronounced, "I think you have a sinus infection." I wanted to exclaim, "Really! I would never have guessed that - especially since I wrote it down, told your nurse, and then told you that's what was wrong with me!" However, it was blatantly obvious that such sarcasm would have been lost on this woman, so I chose to keep my mouth shut. When she asked if I had any final questions, I said, "Yes, actually, I do." I informed her that I've recently been reading about the male birth control pills that are currently in clinical trials and asked a variety of questions on the topic. She was surprised to learn that such advances in medical science had been made. The piece de resistance was when I (a communication scholar who took anatomy in 7TH GRADE) had to  confirm some basic facts about anatomy for this woman. My anatomy lesson for today: Men are generally capable of producing sperm throughout their entire lives, while women have a finite number of eggs. As I sat waiting to have my prescriptions filled (yes, apparently a trained monkey can write scripts) I began to wonder how I have reached the point where, without any medical training other than my own reading, my scientist best friend, and my 7th grade anatomy class, I can provide a more accurate diagnosis that a supposedly trained medical professional. What a waste of three hours of my life!