This is an urgent message....read now or in an hour!

Yes, it is day 4 of 30 days of yoga and I am off to one of my more brilliant starts. I am famous for these. I have been to yoga 0 times!

There is always an excuse if you wait for it. I won't make you wait too long.

I became deathly ill on Tuesday (only a slight embellishment) and thanks to my husband's corporate job with corporate insurance, I believed myself entitled to a visit to Urgent care on Wednesday morning. I was overwhelmed with fever and my body was on fire and I was positive I wasn't going to make it. Never mind that in all of my years as an independent, self-employed woman with affordable catastrophe only insurance I was never "positive I wasn't going to make it" (yes I used these words with my husband) until I had full coverage. My body's timing is impeccably considerate.

I wouldn't have thought I would so quickly bounce myself to urgent care on someone else's dime, and yet I did.

When I was single and not relying on my husband's fabulous insurance plan I did not go in to urgent care, or set up appts. for minor aches and pains, or take medication that required prescriptions. I paid for one yearly exam (around $200)to check in on my overall health, and the few occasions I fell ill? Well, I would ride it out like any penny pinching catastrophe insurance holder would. I figured as long as I was conscious and able to whine about my pain, I was probably going to survive.

Here's what happened as a willy-nilly-free-for-all- insurance holder that was positive I was not going to survive. I asked my husband to drive me at 7am, turns out Urgent care doesn't open until 8am so we drove home and then drove back at 8am, and then I waited in waiting area #1 30 minutes so I could fork over $25, be led into a back waiting area #2 for 20 minutes, then be ushered into a room (aka waiting area #3) and asked to put on a gown, wait another 30 minutes in a feverish chill to have the doctor come in and jab a swab down my throat and a long metal stick up my nose, wait another 20 minutes and have her announce that I tested positive for flu, should go home and rest, take ibuprofen, and that I was probably going to survive.

Here's the lesson I received...

What a gentle reminder that although it is "safe" to have a job with insurance, it isn't necessary. It is definitely better and more courageous to be thrilled-love-your-life-overjoyed in a career that doesn't give you coverage, than "safe" in a job you hate.

I really believe that most of the corporate medical coverage is going to the stressed-out, depressed types that are only holding onto their job so they can have insurance, which they need, to get treated for their stress and depression, which they have, because they hate their job. If only they knew....more happiness means less doctor time, which means affordable catastrophe insurance is really all you need (and all I plan on using now even though I now have the option to pay $25 to whine to a doctor, wait for an hour in three different rooms, and have her jab at me).


DISCLAIMER****
Be clear that I am not in any way saying there is not a need for western medicine, or insurance. Especially if you have children the luxury of only going to the doctor I.C.E. (in case of emergency) is really not an option and even with catastrophe insurance you can incur some large bills if you DO have a catastrophe (my plan was a high deduct able $5,000 before insurance kicked in 100%) However, I think part of the problem is that doctors are way over utilized. We know our bodies better than anyone and yet we doubt our instincts and believe it is better to check in with the professionals, who often tell us what we first knew to be true. That we are probably going to survive.

Here's what I know, doctors are great in these scenarios; oops I cut off my finger, I am pretty sure I am having a heart attack, my baby is coming out right now, or damn, you ran over my leg with the car. But in all these instances you would skip over urgent care and go right for 911. At least I hope you would. They don't even open until 8am.



PS. I am on the mend and will give my second go at 30 days of yoga beginning on Monday!