I think this is unusual circumstances. Everyone who has a cold or the flu is worried that they may have swine flu so the doctor's offices are stampeded with folks.


>Geez Tracy, that's a horrible story. Scream louder. Go public.
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>Conservative - medicare poo pooers please note the evil 'line up' at the America doctor's office and the government is not involved. :))
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>>At this rate, if you do have the swine flu, you won't find out until it's too late to take Tamiflu anyway. I took my daughter to the doctor over the weekend who proclaimed it to be probably just the typical flu bug and they didn't take any tests. He told us that if she is still sick on Monday to return for testing (some of her friends spent their spring break in Mexico). Well, she is still sick with most of the symptoms (fever, sore throat, coughing, lots and lots of body aches, etc) so we returned to the doctor's office today only to be told to return tomorrow afternoon if she is still stick then. Didn't even get to see the doctor. They are overwhelmed with people thinking they have the swine flu. Understandable, but really, tomorrow will be the 3rd doctor's appt for the same illness. We were told to keep her home and out of contact with other people. A little late for that. My daughter attends high school in the morning and one of her morning classes is working as a teacher's aid in the elementary school with kindergarten and special needs children. Then in the afternoon she attends college classes at the local college. At night she works as a cashier in a chinese restaurant. Talk about the means to spread an illness and hit multiple avenues all at once! I shared all that with the clinic, but their statement was: "Well, if she has it or has anything contagious, she's already passed it around all those locations last week." Yet they sent us home and told us not to infect anyone until she sees the doctor tomorrow.
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>>Amazing.
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>>What surprises me most is a couple of years ago when I went to the doctor with flu symptoms that didn't go away, the first thing they did was test me for the full influenza virus (it was positive). Not so today. It's also interesting to note that the lines were long at the clinics (wonder how many more were sent home?) and yet there has been no mention of long lines on any news programs I've seen yet.