Sunday, March 15, 2009

This is the Place to Get Sick

This week, I was remembering when I had my ultrasound in NJ when I was pregnant with Eastin. Afterwards, the technician asked me something about my previous pregnancy (I don't remember specifically what), and I answered her question, adding that that pregnancy had been in Missouri.

A subtle sneer came to her face. "Oh. Well, we're much more advanced out here," she replied. The little snit. I debated whether I should tell her that my ultrasound in Missouri was five times more clear than hers had been . . and that they gave me my own video copy of it to keep . . and that the ultrasound technician in Missouri had, in her 8 years of doing ultrasounds, never been wrong yet about the sex of the child she was looking at. Oh, but they are so backwards in Missouri.

I didn't get too many of these kinds of comments while we lived out there (at least not to my face), but there is definitely an attitude in a good number of East Coasters (and probably West Coasters, too) about "Flyover Country" and how undeveloped we are. I remember my mother-in-law telling me that when she visited the East Coast many years ago, a woman sincerely told her that she would be afraid to live in Kansas with all the Indians. Seriously.

I thought of all this Friday night when I was at the After Hours Urgent Care Clinic trying to get some meds to relieve me of this hacking cough. I thought of it because I don't believe I ever heard of an after hours urgent care clinic-type place in NJ -- and if there'd been one nearby, surely you'd think I would have heard about it in 10 years. It is a GREAT thing to be able to walk into a place without an appointment and see a PA for an injury or illness that is not bad enough for an emergency room but too troublesome to wait until the doctor is back in the office on Monday. There are plenty of these kinds of places in the Midwest, and have been for years. You would think such an advanced civilization as New Jersey would have come up with this concept by now.

Also, when Keith went in for his appointment with the family doctor this week, he was able to get his bloodwork done at the office while he was there. No getting paperwork to take in to "LabCorp" or one of those miserable places where you wait in line forever to get your labwork done and then sent back to your doctor, with whom you then have to make (and pay for) another appointment for him to evaluate it all. I remember the first time my doctor's office tried to explain that whole process to me; I thought, "You're kidding, right?" They also do x-rays at the doctor's office here. And MRIs. One stop medical care. It's fabulous.

Not to knock New Jersey. :) You all know I love you and miss being there with you. But that East Coast attitude has got to go.

However, I do have to admit that I still have this hacking cough . . .

2 comments:

Unknown said...

First of all, I LOVE the South and the Midwest and I would totally move out there in a heartbeat if I could bring all my peeps with me! HA! Second, there USED TO be an after-hours urgent care place in Voorhees, but I think it's gone now. I remember my parents and I went a couple times. When you say something is "not serious enough for an emergency room" I think the problem is that people in NJ do not understand that and go to the ER at the drop of a hat!!!

Unknown said...

My primary doctor and ob/gyn both do bloodwork. That was especially nice when I was doing all that prenatal bloodwork. One of the specialists I took Anna too did blood work too. I suppose it just depends on the practice. I haven't heard of anyone in New Jersey that does X-rays or MRI's in their office though.