ASUnited (Arizona State University WeBlog)

It discomforts me that it seems I’m frequently writing about the negative aspects that come up at ASU. I had an experience today, however, that I never want to relive. I’ve been on Student health insurance through Aetna for over a year now and I’ve found it to be pretty worth the money as far as health plans are concerned. The ASU Student Health Center has highly qualified doctors and the few times I’ve had to request their services they have been super friendly and at least seemed to be genuinely concerned about the reason I was to be seeing them.

Before today, I have only ever gone in on a scheduled appointment to see the doctor. This morning threw me a curve ball though  and I woke up miserable. Me and 2 other friends have come down with the same sickness in the past month as we all took a trip to Thailand over the break. My roommate Mike was the only one that actually went to the doctor to get it checked out and they determined that he had salmonella. All three of us had the exact same symptoms and had eaten the exact same things at the same places while we were in Thailand so it stands to reason that we all were experiencing the same illness… Right?

Anyway, after testing positive for salmonella this morning, Mike tells me that I need to go to urgent care right away and have them check me out so I can get antibiotics for salmonella and get this crap taken care of before it gets even worse. He had told his doctor about all of us getting sick and the doctor told him to have me come in as soon as possible to get it checked out.

So that’s exactly what I did. I went to urgent care, sat in the waiting room for 20 mins, got weighed, waited another 20 mins, they took me to a curtained-off room, and then I waited another 30 mins before the doctor even comes in. She comes in and asks me my symptoms, I tell her what they are and all about what has happened with the three of us getting sick as well as Mike’s coming in earlier and being tested positive for salmonella. She says she thinks I don’t have salmonella and then leaves. The nurse comes in and gives me a nose swab that makes my eyes run like a faucet and then leaves. I wait for another 20 mins and the doctor comes back and tells me I tested negative for the flu… duh!

So they decided to do blood samples and test for the flu again. I tested negative again for flu and negative for Mono as well. This whole process takes over 3 hours. Finally, after the center was about to close, the doctor says she can’t really tell what it is but that something is wrong and it’s probably just the flu even though I’ve tested negative for it twice. She prescribes pain killers and cough medicine and I leave. That was quite possibly the worst doctor experience I’ve ever been through. I waisted my whole afternoon and got nothing out of it when I could have just as well been sleeping and perhaps felt a little better because of it.

Bottom line is that if you need to see the doctor at the ASU Health Center, I highly suggest you make an appointment. Urgent care is horrible. They waisted my time, money, and sanity… and more than likely I still have salmonella.

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