Kaiser was as efficient as it could’ve been, except for the waiting. I went from the main waiting room to the lab to the waiting room to see the RNP to the pharmacy, and that took from 6:45p to almost 9:30p. The RNP, after talking to me and examining the results of the lab test, asked whether I wear thongs. I said those and g-strings are my staple underwear. She told me to stop wearing them for 6 weeks. WHAT?! She said, “I know, I know, the underwear line thing. My husband would even stop and whisper to me, ‘Hey, you can see that woman’s underwear lines!’ But before thongs became popular, we had 10% of the infections we do now. Ten percent!” Wow. I didn’t know the two were correlated, but you can’t argue those stats. So that’s my public service announcement for today, girls. If you get recurring UTIs and you’re doing everything else right, reduce the thong wear. 🙁 I personally would rather go commando than show underwear lines. Oh, that reminds me. She also advised to go to bed at night sans underwear. If you choose to wear underwear, choose something with at least a cotton crotch, if not completely cotton everywhere else.

I chatted on the cell w/college roommie Diana while I was in the large overpacked waiting room. “Wow,” she said, “Why’re there so many people? Is everyone just sick with the flu or something?”
“I don’t know what they’re sick with,” I grumbled, “looks like chromosomal defects.”
Later, I called Mr. W while I was waiting at the Kaiser pharmacy. He asked if I was playing pat-a-cake with a bunch of children. “I know! If I have to stand in a long, slow, winding line with a ton of screaming children, there should at least be a ride at the end of it.” A woman in line behind me let her child scream at the top of his lungs for what felt like forever instead of handing him off to her husband and/or teenage kid to take elsewhere. HMOs in low-income areas…sigh.