Monday, October 16, 2006

Matter of Public Record

Today an interesting thing happened. I got an envelope in the mail from the Yuma County Health Department. I have never been to the Yuma County Health Department so I was a little surprised. The only thing in the envelope was a small card asking me to come or call this person there and refer to the letters at the bottom of the card. It was all typed except for my name and the letters which were written in ink pen. So I called the man at the health department who confirmed my name, social security number and the date at which I was at the emergency room.

Up until this point I was ok, now I was getting nervous I explained that yes I was in the emergency room and that I had appendicitis. He said that didn't matter and just made a crazy statement: You have chlamydia and you and your partner need to come in immediately for treatment

I immediately argued and told him he was wrong. There was no way I had an STD but this man didn't believe me, I am sure he gets this all the time and he was very calm. I couldn't imagine having his job, send people anonymous mail, they call and you tell them they have an STD, all in a day's work I guess.

At some point I apparently started raising my voice and Sarah said to hang up that I didn't have to talk to them and didn't have to tell them anything. So I told him I would see my doctor. I called my doctor's office and spoke with a nurse. When I told her the whole story she was laughing so hard she couldn't even talk to me. She eventually told me that we would have to do another test to confirm that I didn't have it on Wednesday at my appointment but she said I was right, there was no way I could have chlamydia.

I can't wait to tell the Doctor the story on Wednesday, I hope that I can get the whole thing taken off my hospital record and avoid any future embarrassment. Someone, I won't name any names said the next thing would be that they would are going to put a sign on my door at school :-) It all seems so ridiculous now! But earlier I had myself convinced that maybe they were right and there was some other way to get it, of course there isn't and I was being insane as always.

Next time, an L.A. story, I promise.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This story is a classic. :-) Sus