The Clinic

I decided that since it had been a full week, and I hadn't been getting any better, I ought to go over to a walk-in clinic.  It's somewhat harder to do this in Toronto than Chicago, where virtually all the Walgreens have a walk-in clinic, but it is doable.  (I wish Shoppers here had clinics, but I think very few of them do.)  Riverdale is fortunate in that there is a clinic (with Sunday hours) on the very edge (Broadview and Danforth).  After that, you either have to go to the Beach or into downtown.  While I had considered going downtown, I really didn't want to travel that far, particularly as I was still kind of tired.

As a side note, I like my neighbourhood quite a bit, particularly as it is the opposite of a food desert.  We have two decent grocery stores, which is much different than the situation on Danforth or Queen (at least in Riverdale/Leslieville).  There is one overpriced grocery store on Danforth and otherwise, you are picking up stuff at the Shoppers.  I am personally a bit disadvantaged in banks, as there is only a CIBC inside Gerrard Square and a RBC nearby, but that's still not too bad.  And Withrow Park is quite cool, particularly the summer programming (and the sledding hill isn't shabby either).  Only recently I read that Gord Downie moved to Carlaw Ave. so that he could play pick-up hockey games on the ice rink in Withrow.  How cool.  Where my neighbourhood really falls down is in its lack of a post office.  It's really odd that there isn't any store in Gerrard Square that has a small post office tucked inside.  If this were Vancouver, there would definitely be a post office nearby, probably in the mall, but for some reason, Canada Post seems to have cut a deal in Ontario that it gives right of first refusal to Shoppers or something.  I mean there are post offices in other stores, but they are mostly in Shoppers.  If you don't believe me, check out this map to see how you are out of luck if you are in the East Side and are living on Dundas or Gerrard or Kingston and need to walk to a post office (and even on Queen there is a really long stretch between post offices).  Ah well, I guess you can't have everything.

But back to the clinic.  I had expected to have to wait for quite a while, given how few Sunday clinics there are (and how cold/flu season is starting to kick in).  I was pleasantly surprised that almost no one else was there, and I was able to see the doctor in less than 15 minutes!  The good news is that I don't have strep throat and I don't have pneumonia (I didn't think I had pneumonia, but I did catch it last in 2007 or 2008, and I probably do need to take the vaccine against it).  The bad news is that he thinks my suppressed immune system let in some other lung infection, so I am on antibiotics for the next 10 days. 

I was able to fill the prescription at the mall (fortunately quite a few pharmacies in Toronto have Sunday hours).  Then I took a nap.  And then I did some laundry and took another nap.  At some point, I decided that this time around, I could skip Toronto Cold Reads, and then I went back to bed, before finally waking up for a very late dinner.  Now I definitely need to go next weekend, as there is another installation of 3Fest (and I believe my 3Fest plays will be Nov. 12, but that hasn't been completely established).  Here's hoping that I will finally have kicked this illness by next weekend.  I can't have every weekend go by where I get so little accomplished.