more experiences with medical care

My sinus infection cleared up but my left ear continued to feel blocked so I decided to go to an ENT.  The doctor's hours are 9:00 to 1:00 & 3:00 to 7:00.  You don't make an appointment, but you just go to the doctor's office, get a number and wait.  I decided that it would be best to go after my classes, which end at 5:30.  The doctor's office was in the office building attached to Hospital Monte Sinai.  (Yes, Mount Sinai.)  I didn't have to wait long and had the most thorough ENT exam I've ever had.  He looked in my ears, nose, and throat, using a camera & I could see on a screen on the wall what it looks like inside all 3 (actually 5) of those parts of my body.  He didn't see anything of concern, but suggested that I have some testing done by an audiologist, which I had to do the following day.

Mostly the audiology testing was similar to what I have had before, with earphones on & my having to press a button whenever I heard a sound, testing both ears.  The part that was new was when I had to repeat the words that I heard from the earphones.  The problem associated with this was that the words were (of course) in Spanish.  It was hard to keep myself from laughing.  My Spanish is pretty good, but having words in Spanish whispered to me via earphones to test my hearing seemed to be a bit much.  It felt more like a Spanish vocabulary test & I wasn't convinced that I got it all.  I said something to that effect, but the audiologist, who was rather humorless, didn't seem to care & also said that I did fine on that part of the test.

From the audiologist's office I returned to the ENT, where I had to wait a bit, but did not have to pay a second time.  He said that I still had some inflammation & prescribed a pill to be taken for 5 days and an injection.  Injections, as I previously learned when I had the problem with my back, are not given in the doctor's office.  He gave me a prescription for the injection & the pills.  Off I went to the pharmacy at Monte Sinai, bought the pills & the serum for the injection, & then headed to the ER, where I got the injection.  Another new experience, which concluded with a resolution to my ear problem & chuckles re the hearing test in Spanish.