What is a clinic? I always thought of a clinic as a medical place to get help when one is sick. In my thinking, it is a place where people don't usually have to have appointments and is used to fill in when one can't get to the family doctor.

When I have a cold or other common illness, I usually go to the Lenore Clinic where Rita works. Rita is a nurse practitioner who, in my opinion, knows more than a lot of doctors. She is very intelligent and compassionate and really knows her medicine.

Unfortunately, last week, when I really needed a doctor and couldn't drive to Huntington to my regular doctor, the Lenore Clinic personnel were on vacation. This left me thinking, "My arm will get better by itself."

That was my first mistake. The second mistake was thinking that all "clinics" are created equal. Therefore, I set out to find one with a doctor who could help me.

Being so closely associated with Delbarton all of my life, going there was my first thought. That was my second mistake.

Delbarton is a wonderful little town. However, it is unique. It has a clinic that only services the town area. How they can make money only serving this small area, I don't know. I also don't know how they can have the word "Mingo" in their title and only service part of Mingo County.

What I do know is that I called the clinic and a woman who yawned in my ear answered the phone and informed me that the doctor was in and that there was no one in the waiting room at the time. I drove to Delbarton with my left hand because my right arm had something wrong with it.

No, it wasn't the heart attack pain we always hear about. It was a pain like tendonitis or bursitis or something other kind of "itis" that hasn't been discovered yet. It didn't matter what kind it was, it hurt, and I couldn't move it.

So, I drove from Lenore to Delbarton with my left hand while holding onto the bottom of the steering wheel with my right fingers. This was not an easy feat, but I got there.

When I walked into the clinic, there was no sign in sheet. That should have been a clue. I said, "May I sign in?" The receptionist looked at me and said, "What's wrong with you?"

I have never been to a doctor where a receptionist asks me what is wrong with me. If my arm hadn't been hurting so badly, I would have told her it was none of her business, but I didn't want to antagonize her. I am not very patient when I am a patient.

I told her I couldn't move my arm and I would like to see the doctor to get something to make it better. She told me to wait a minute and went in the back. I heard murmurings.

She came back out and asked me where I lived. When I said Lenore, she told me that they didn't treat anyone outside the Delbarton area and that I needed to go to the hospital. I told her I wished she had told me that before I drove to Delbarton with one hand. I wished I had told her it was none of her business at the beginning.

I went home and suffered the rest of the day. The next day I set out to find a doctor. I headed toward Huntington and decided I would go as far as I needed. My first stop was at the Justice Clinic below Kermit. It was like having a family reunion. Two of our TVHS students worked there, the staff was wonderful, and I finally got some medicine. The arm is now on the mend.

My last mistake was telling my family about my adventure. Every one of them has laughed. I may never live down the experience. Evidently, my daughter told her sisters-in-law, one of whom is a nurse, and they had a big Hee Haw laugh about it. They were sure the receptionist considered me to be a drug addict.

My opinion is that, at the very least, the doctor should have seen me to evaluate the situation.

I know I had been having to wash my face, to put on my make up, and to try to fix my hair with my left hand, but I really didn't think I looked so bad that people would mistake me for a person who goes around to clinics for drugs. I didn't even want pain pills. I just wanted medicine.

The week before my arm experience, I decided to buy another pre-paid cell phone. Because one of the wireless companies has a monopoly on the air waves in Williamson and only lets certain other companies use them, I decided to get one of the phones that works up there.

Alltel is one of these companies. With gas prices so high, rather than going to Logan or Huntington, I decided to call the toll free number and see what they had to offer. It sounded good. I could activate it over the Internet and receive 60 free minutes, etc. etc.

My friend Vonda bought the same phone. I thought it was a piece of cake. That was my first mistake.

When I got the phone in the mail, I got on line and tried the activation. I couldn't get it to work. I called the company and talked to several different people No one could help me.

One person even told me the number I had wasn't on his list and that I would have to go to a store to get it activated.

I tried to activate it by calling the activation number listed with the instructions even though this wouldn't get me the 60 free minutes. I called from my home phone, but couldn't activate it that way because they were going to send me some type of number I had to have before I could activate it. The number was going to come over my cell phone which wasn't activated at the time.

Besides, that is why I have pre-paid phones. We have no signal where we live.

I was stuck, and so was Vonda. If I couldn't get my phone to work, I couldn't get hers to work either.

Because I was going to Huntington anyway, I took the phones down there to get them activated. They now work. Whether they work in Williamson or not, I'm not sure because I haven't been there since I got mine.

Now, I have to call and argue about the 60 free minutes.

My husband is sure that traffic sits at each end of our "straight stretch" and waits for us to move our front bumper within 5 feet of our driveway entrance. There might have been no traffic go by for 30 minutes, but as soon as we start, it starts, too. They see us coming.