Second Round of Covid Stress/Anxiety

Nearly a week ago, I had what I thought were normal cold symptoms; sneezing, nasal congestion, watery eyes. Then, *boom* I felt like I'd been run over so I went to my local urgent care to be tested for the flu/covid.

Since I already had Covid two years ago, and still have high immunity from that strain, I immediately thought I had bronchitis. Well, I was half right. I have bronchitis. The nasal swab test results from UC were negative for the flu and positive for Covid (not sure which strain).

After struggling for three days with a fever of 102.5F, it finally broke and is back to normal. However, I still have bronchitis and no doctor will give me Amoxicillin (my phlegm color is yellow so I know from past experience that means for me, bacterial, not viral). I'm pretty upset b/c the doctors are gaslighting me, by telling me that my bronchitis is definitely viral since Covid is viral.

The stress of having Covid a second time is one thing. But to have doctors - whom I'm supposed to trust with my health and well-being - refuse to listen to a patient who knows her body better than they do, creates an added layer of stress that's just unnecessary and harmful, if you ask me. My immune system is already working overtime fighting whatever strain of Covid I've caught now.

The first UC dr. I saw after a 2.5 hour wait, didn't even listen to my lungs, heart or examine me. Just the nasal swab. So, I reported her. She had written "flu" diagnosis on my UC discharge. Meanwhile, the swab results came in after my visit with her, positive for Covid, negative for the flu. So yeah, she got reported. I don't care if my clinic hates me. Just b/c you have a medical board license, doesn't exempt you from being held accountable for your choices when dealing with sick people. Otherwise, why did you go into medicine. And, why work at an urgent care clinic IF you don't like the high ratio of patients per provider on call? She was 1 of 4 doctors on call, too. So, literally NO excuse to what she did to me.

Because of her laziness, I had to go back to UC the next day and be seen again b/c my primary didn't have any openings until November. The second UC dr. I saw, moonlights in UC and is a ER dr in his mid-60s. He also patronized me, patting me on my middle-aged knee, "you're not going to die from getting Covid again or from this bronchitis." Oh really doctor? How does he know?

Getting Covid once is scary enough. But twice? There's no telling what it will do to me long-term, having had it twice now. The organ damage possibilities. The early dementia risk. The risk of Parkinson's and other diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, or brain fog, or god knows what. I have the unknown side effects of two rounds of Covid awaiting me.

I'm on day 5 of my second round of Covid and my fever broke. So, my immune system is definitely working. I still have swollen lymph nodes and a raspy voice. I still have my taste and smell. But my energy is 1/2 of what it was before this second Covid hit me.

I don't know if anyone can relate to my situation (if you had Covid twice like me). Or the way doctors deflect their own mental stress on to their patients through gaslighting, b/c they are not willing to take responsibility for their own mental health.

I just need to get to Sunday. If I can get through to Sunday, I will feel less afraid. I think my frustration and anxiety is reasonable considering the way I've been treated since this whole ordeal started on Monday.

Effin drs. They arent home alone when they are sick.

You might try calling an online dr on demand. Altho i have had some that were clearly sexist, you might be able to get a prescription. When i have "rails" (rattling in the middle of my chest), i dont fool around. Geez. A viral infection can make you more likely to succumb to a bacterial one, just because of your weakened state.

To the original poster.
First and foremost.
You have my sympathies.
Secondly.
Gaslighting apparently doesn't have to be intentional or deliberate.
(But yes, there are some doctors and nurses who do seem to be probably doing it on purpose. &#128580
Thirdly. Can you go to another urgent care facility or is there only one available in your area that works with your insurance?
(Just a question. And I think that there are currently only two that work with mine. And one isn't generally very helpful, and the other is one which bills two copays for one visit. Sigh. &#128580

I did actually pay $50 for a third party doctor video call through a minute clinic. That doctor also refused to prescribe me antibiotics.

A viral infection like an upper respiratory infection can and will often turn bacterial. This is why I dislike doctors in general. When they refuse to respect the patient.

My endocrinologist out of nowhere added a 'no refills - doctor authorization only - note to my thyroid prescription I've taken for over 20 years. I filed a complaint against him with my healthcare company and am going to go to a different healthcare company to find a new endocrinologist.

This endo is a dept head too. I messaged him asking him for a letter explaining his legal reason for preventing me from filling my own thyroid medication. If he accuses me of abusing it, I'm definitely going to sue him.

Stupid Walgreens automated system has been refilling my thyroid medication two weeks early and I tried to address this with Walgreens and they didn't change anything.

So, if that's why my endo took away my ability to refill my own medication without even consulting me first, I will still sue him. He has no legal right to do that without first legally stating why.

My GP never allows any refills. You have to see him every time you want to refill anything.

As about antibiotics. They need to do x ray and that would show if you have bronchitis or not. I refuse to see GPS who make you wait weeks for appts and urgent care isn’t a good place to get continuous care. I keep seeing my crazy GP (the one who won’t do refills) because he will see you when you are sick. You don’t need urgent care unless it’s after hours. I might wait in a waiting room half a day but either he or a nurse practitioner will see you

I get 90 days on all my meds except the diabetes ones. Then i dont have to go in, i can request a refill online.

I can get an appt pretty quickly. Maybe theres a special class for "old as heck".

Why do you allow your GP to manipulate you that way? Esp. if he/she is 'crazy.'

I had an x-ray done. It showed bronchitis. My medical chart SHOWS that I get bacterial bronchitis every time I catch it. I've always taken an antibiotic when I get the URI. This is the first time I was refused and I'm 51. So, now that I'm middle aged, I'm more prone to develop serious disease.

I hate all medical professionals.

I used to also get a 3 month supply of my thyroid medication that I could self-refill. Sorry to hear that you have Diabetes too. That stinks.

I don't know what changed. I'm livid that my endo - a dept head for 5 years, who's treated me for 11 years - would suddenly prevent me from refilling my own thyroid medication without a legal explanation. Doctors are REQUIRED by law to send their patients paperwork about prescription changes. He didn't.

I'm battling the referral system now with my new GP who operates out of a different clinic system. That clinic system is linked to my long-time clinic system that I have attended since my childhood. But I'm fed up with the way I'm being treated with disrespect by medical professionals and need to start over.

Hopefully my new GP will agree to write me a referral to a new endo. If she refuses, I'll look for a new GP.

My GP is great. He literally cured any kind of medical issue I ever had. It was tongue in cheek calling him “crazy” because he wants people to come see him to get refills. It’s not uncommon. And no big deal for me. “Manipulate?” Lol he can’t manipulate me as I don’t depend on him, I can see any GP in my state. My insurance covers everything but I don’t want to see a different GP because mine is great, he’s well known to be extremely thorough. Occasional appt for a refill it’s no big deal.

It sounds like you live in the area with a terrible medical care. I am sorry. I am lucky that medical care in my area is great. Obviously I don’t suggest you move as it’s not that easy but living with subpar medical care is hard. Not getting antibiotics for bronchitis and not have access to GP when needed is unacceptable.

It makes me wonder why all of a sudden they refuse to prescribe you meds or refill meds. Sounds shady

I'm wondering about the thyroid meds too. I've never heard of anyone abusing thyroid meds. It's not like it's opiates, benzos, or stimulants.

He probably wants you to have a TSH blood test to see if there’s any need to change the level of thyroid meds. I’ve never heard of doctors having to report to the patents.

I don’t think you’ll have any luck suing a doctor for wanting to check up on you or getting authorization from GP instead of automatically refilling meds. I think you’d have a better luck suing doctors for allowing endless automatic refill without ever seeing a patient.

I’ve never heard of doctors being required to provide legal reasons for wanting to see a patient or wanting them to see GP. Doctors could require you to see them or for your to see a GP or a specialist every that often for refilling meds. Once a year or once in three months or whatever. Sure it’s inconvenient. But it’s not something you can sue for. I mean you can but you won’t win as it’s not an extraordinary request

I do agree that not prescribing antibiotics for bronchitis sounds all wrong. That’s why you need a reliable GP. Going to different urgent cares don’t get you the results you need. Some urgent cares are great but overall they always say ok here is something to get you through till Monday and now go see your primary doctor

So the dept. head endo called me yesterday as I was driving home from work to explain what happened.

When I noticed the note on my Px bottle of thyroid medication, I sent him and his nursing team a message asking why he wrote that note. His "excuse" yesterday was that there was an auto refill error.

The reason I know it's a lie, is because prior to this month, this "error" of his authorizing "no refills" never happened in the 20+ years of me refilling my thyroid medication.

So, I agree with someone above who suggested that he cut me off b/c he wanted me to come in for TSH labls etc. to justify changing my thyroid prescription. His excuse yesterday to blame it on the auto refill pharmacy is total bulls*h%t and he knows it. He just doesn't think I know it.

After he called me, I called and spoke to the pharmacist and asked if that was a real error and was told no, it wasn't. So, yeah. He lied. I'm still going to find a new endocrinologist through my new GP. It will just take her writing me a referral to see a new endocrinologist.

Only doctors can write the "no authorization to refill" on a Px. The pharmacy doesnt automatically do that with overdue prescriptions. Just how dumb does this asshat think I am.

My insurance called me in response to my email complaint to take my verbal complaint. So, it turns out that my health insurance company DOES automatically stop patients' prescriptions whose dr ordered labs expire. Only, since the dr. and his/her team never sends patients a reminder or an auto reminder email to get those labs done, patients' prescriptions get automatically stopped until they complete their labs and then the authorization to stop the refills gets deleted by the healthcare system.

So, I learned something new. I jumped to quite a conclusion (I admit). But now I'm even more upset b/c I haven't seen this endo in a year and didn't know I had outstanding blood work labs that expired.

When you see him/her, ask how often you need those labs done. I assume once a year is a normal time frame. Maybe less often. Then you keep track of it on a calendar. Would be nice if they reminded, seems like a common courtesy, but looks like they don’t. Seems like something less crucial like teeth cleaning gets reminded non stop (my dentist drives me nuts whth those) but I guess they don’t think to remind about important labs. Smh

Twice a year - one lab every six months. I had my TSH labs done already, so this came up out of the blue.

It shows just how broken and archaic some organizational processes are. It's not efficient AT ALL and detrimental to the patient who relies on their prescription medications - to just stop a patient's prescription if they don't know they have pending or expired blood lab work.

At least member services forwarded my complaint to the compliance department with my feedback that their system is inefficient and not safe for patients. I can't be the only patient who this has happened to.

I'm still pretty upset b/c there's no reason they should happen to me or any patient.