39 degrees on a sunday

and no, i am not talking about the weather.

i was down with high fever yesterday, and it turned out to be such an unforgettably horrible experience.

firstly, there is hardly any clinic which operates on a sunday. hence, the only few which were open were overcrowded and the wait was even longer than your ordinary polyclinic queues. for myself, i had to suffer a one and a half hours of excruciating wait before i finally saw the foctor.

secondly, for the clinic that i went to, they requested for those with flu-like symptoms to be isolated from the rest. well, technically there is nothing wrong with it because their intention is to protect the health of the other patients. but the unpleasant part was that the seats at the isolation area were small stools with no back rest - the plastic ones which you may find at a wake, or a coffeeshop. this is a sharp contrast to the seats at the main waiting area, where there are proper chairs and even a simple sofa. for people who had backaches (like myself, due to the viral infection), sitting on the stool was plain torture.

furthermore, it was not only the seats that i loathe, the location of the seats was unacceptable because I was made to sit along a deserted corridor at the back of the clinic. there was absolutely no human traffic, no cctv, no staff to check if i was doing fine. so i was pretty sure that if i had fainted, nobody would have notice at all.

finally, because of my fever, i was made to wear a surgical mask, which rendered my breathing difficult. most healthy individuals are already uncomfortable with wearing a mask, what's more for somebody who has sinus and a blocked nose?

hence, i think i can be excused/forgiven for shouting at the poor locum doctor when i finally got to see him. my incessant tearing became a loud sob as i started ranting at the clueless doctor. i don't even think I was coherent at all! on hindsight, i really wasn't in the right frame of mind.

to sum it up, you can say that being down with a high fever on a sunday is a nightmare. after the long wait, i got myself a jab, five packets of various medicine, and three days of medical leave. i pray none of you would ever fall sick on a sunday, when most of the general practitioners are at rest.