Medicine at the SuperStore

Robert, Wednesday, September 17

It was nice to spend a lot of today just being lazy. We finally set out for the Edmonton Mall, which is reputed to be one of the largest malls in the world. I wanted to visit a medical clinic and I determined that there is one in the mall. I figured that Leslie could shop while I went to the clinic. On occasions I get an outer ear infection. This has been going on for more than forty years and it occurs more often when I am in a climate with high humidity or when I swim in the ocean. Well the humidity certainly has been high all summer and I have an infection. We got to the mall and it turns out that the clinic there is for things like removing warts and wrinkles. So after five minutes in the mall, we set out to find another clinic. We finally found one in a SuperStore. This is very similar to a Super WalMart. They could see me but there would be a two-hour wait and I had to check in every 25 minutes to keep my place in line. We wandered the store for a while. Finally we got hungry so we bought some candy and went to the truck outside to sit, listen to the radio, and eat the candy. We are far enough south that our XM radio has started working again so we listened to CNN. Finally I went to check in and I was close to seeing the doctor. When I finally saw the doctor, I explained that I had an infection in my outer left ear. He asked a few questions and proceeded to look in both ears. I told him that my ear canals are both about the same size. Well, he looked and pushed in my right ear asking if the pressure hurt. I kept telling him no. He finally stopped to write something on the chart and I asked him if it was red and inflamed. He replied, “Not at all.” I told him he needed to look again as I was sure it was. It then became apparent that he was checking out my other left ear. Now he proceeded to look in my left ear and asked the same questions he had asked about my right ear. Only then did he confirm that it was red and inflamed. I got a prescription for some ear drops and walked over to the pharmacy that was in the store. The clerk took the script and asked me a bunch of questions like did I know how to use these drops. I assured him I could handle putting drops in my ear. A little later when I picked up the drops, a different clerk asked me if I had any questions and did I know how to take the drops. Once again I assured her I was up to the task. Then she proceeded to explain that when I put the drops in my eyes I should push the skin up under my eyes to hold the drops in. I pointed out that I would be putting the drops in my ear. I sure am glad I didn’t need to rely on this brain trust for any information. After we finally finished this, we set out to find a place to eat dinner. In a few blocks Leslie said, “Turn in here,” and we ended up at our kind of place. The food was great. We then went back home and called it a day.