After some probing questions about known allergies, she faxed a prescription to your pharmacy. She has given you suggestions on how to alleviate the discomfort while you wait for your friends to come back with the prescription. She has also suggested getting allergy testing done.
You both sign off, and not too much later, you get a message from your pharmacy that the prescription is ready. You message your friends. They message you back, saying they are on their way with the medication.
All this from the comfort of a couch, with a movie paused and a carrot to munch on. Online medical visits are convenient, especially when you don’t have your car and are out of town.
***
The Saturday after the weekend of itchiness comes, and some strange tingling sensations have started on your back. It isn’t quite like the blisters from the poison ivy from the weekend, but it’s definitely not normal.
You grab your phone to start a visit with the online doctor service again…only to find the battery is dead, and something is plugging the charging port. You would do this on your computer or tablet, but judging by the service trucks behind the apartment, your home internet will be down for at least a few more hours. No virtual doctor this time.
Grabbing your keys, you run down the stairs and head to the nearest walk-in clinic, which conveniently has a nearby grocery store (you’re out of carrots…again).
Arriving and signing in, it doesn’t look like too much of a wait, and they have a movie playing. Not a bad setup at all.
After being called in and showing your back to the doctor, they poked and prodded a bit and helped determine the edges of the itch and the likely diagnosis. No easy cream medication for this one, and the certainty that it would likely feel worse before it felt better wasn’t quite the news you were hoping for.
When the doctor notices the faded marks on your arms, you mention that you were out of town and used the online clinic, and the doctor nods with a smile. He’s recently signed up to provide services through there, as well as at the walk-in.
Dropping off the prescription at the pharmacy in the grocery store, you pick up a few things while you wait and think with gratitude that it is awesome that you have the options for medical care through traditional and online walk-in clinics.
You pick up the prescription, pay for groceries, and head home. When you pull into the parking spot, another dread feeling makes your stomach sink.
