Prince

This is probably a silly question, but anyway...

I came down pretty heavy with the flu on Tuesday. I worked the night between Tuesday and Wednesday anyway, even though I was sick and it was pure hell, because they were short, and I knew that if I had called in and left them so severely shorthanded, the D.O.N. would have insisted that I show some kind of proof for having been sick enough to call in.

I was scheduled to be off the following two nights after that, Wed/Thu, and Thu/Fri. So I spent those days pretty much bed-ridden, sleeping and popping pills. Come Friday afternoon, I still felt sick so I decided to call in. I didn't feel feverish and I had some of my appetite back, but didn't want to risk it. I am glad I did - it's now 4 in the morning and I am back to feeling horrible.

I am supposed to work again tonight, and I don't want to call in again. I want to either suck it up and go to work regardless of how I feel, or try seeing a doctor and seeing if he'll write something that will vouch for the fact that I am sick, and not just prolonging my days off for the hell of it.

Here's the problem, though: I don't have health insurance, so the doctor's appointment would probably run up to 80-100 bucks. Which I am okay with, so long as there would be some sort of good that could be accomplished by going. Do doctors in America "prescribe" time off from work due to being sick? Do they write "a note" for work? Do people even miss more than day or two of work because they've got the flu? Seems like I should already be over this and back to being healthy.

I am not sure I could even get an appointment for today (Saturday) at such a short notice, even if I wanted to. And at a practice that takes patients w/o insurance.

Knowing how my workplace is, though, if I call in again I'll be pushing my luck as to still having a job to go back to, unless I have some sort of documentation to show for STILL being sick. Because, when they're short, they have to fill in the missing spot with someone from the other shifts, which usually means that that person is on overtime pay.

It'd be one thing I guess if I had a desk job and could stare at a screen and pretend to be 'all there', but being a nursing assistant the job is pretty hectic and very physical, so while I know I can work while I am still feeling sick, I don't know if I should. When I did so on Tuesday, I didn't feel like I was doing my body any favors.

This is starting to sound like whining, so I best be off. Wanted to get input on this, wasn't sure how these sick day things are best handled in the blue collar section of the American workforce. Thanks for listening.

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