I had no takers with the last offering and have 5 left. First five comments get them.

Yup. That’s right. Seven Hours! And they were seven of the longest hours I can remember.

The less-than-happy left leg started acting weird on Tuesday, and Western Medicine got worried. After a DVT/PE, they tend to panic pretty easily. And to make matters worse, recent bloodwork had me out of the Holy Grail Therapeutic INR Range, so another clot wasn’t out of the question.

After I reported leg weirdness, I was shunted from Internist to Urgent Care to ER, where I presented myself for inspection at about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Urgent Care had directed me to make sure the ER Weenies clearly understood my history so that they would see me in something resembling a reasonable timeframe, but I guess I wasn’t emphatic enough…

Seven hours. Delayed test results. Lost paperwork. General indifference on the part of any number of ER staff (I know how overworked they are, and I was really trying to be a good sport, but…) and by 11:30 I had had enough. I managed to pry loose the two key pieces of information that I had gone in for by eavesdropping at the nurses’ station (no evidence of new clots, and a slightly improved INR) and so I did the unthinkable: I walked out.

There’s something about putting oneself in the hands of Western Medicine that causes most of us to surrender all control. After all, we’re on their turf and it’s foreign territory. The last thing we want to do is piss off the people with the needdles. If I’ve learned nothing else in the last two months, I have learned the value of taking charge of my own Medical Weirdness.

I know, I know. It’s been too quiet here at OSW for the last week or so. Well, as of Tuesday, the party ended and Western Medicine sent me back to the Salt Mine.

Two months away from the Salt Mine was enough to completely convince me that I am done with Corporate America. If that wasn’t enough, three days back was enough to seal the deal. It’s pretty amazing just how quickly the hallowed halls of capitalism can lose their appeal. OneWoman will be moving on just as soon as a change can be arranged.

In the meantime, updates here will likely be weekly, rather than daily.