Oh Oh HMO

I have a horrible earache and thanks to our HMO I can't see our doctor until Wednesday. I can't hear out of my left ear and if some lunatic was stabbing me in the ear with an icepick it wouldn't hurt much worse. I wish we had a PPO like we did in the old days because I could go to one of the plentiful urgent care centers and get some happy pills. I may end up going anyway because this pain is just unbearable. I'm a little freaked out about ear infections because I get them all the time, and so did my grandmother. She was on a plane going to compete on Jeopardy! when she completely lost her hearing and hasn't gotten it back to this day. I don't really want to be deaf. Well, maybe I do sometimes when the children won't zip it but that's a halfhearted wish. There are a lot of things I don't mind spending $100 on but I hate dumping that much on something that should only cost $25. I should call up there and say, Look. My ear hurts like a MoFo and I need to come by and get checked out, but for $100 I feel like I should get more than just an antibiotic. How about you give me a bottle of Mommy's Little Helpers for my trouble? Or maybe a bottle of the wonderful Histex cough syrup? That would probably get a note of Crazy Woman written in my chart, though. I'm a nightmare bargainer at a flea market or yard sale but I have a feeling that wouldn't go over so well in the doctor's office.