Our Trip to the Doctor

Those that follow me on Facebook know that Sean has been under the weather. The short story is "he is feeling better" the long story..

Sean had a chipped wisdom tooth extracted a couple Fridays ago.. but then as it healed he had a sore throat.. I don't recall having a sore throat after my wisdom teeth (3) were extracted, but I had a different procedure I think.. Sean got his at the dental office, and I went elsewhere & was knocked out as they had to do minor surgery on my mouth to remove the impacted molars.

To be clear we don't think the extraction was the ultimate cause of his sore throat.. this was just something considered at first when this started happening "oh maybe it's your mouth healing from the extraction?"

Sean was gargling regular with warm salt water but that wasn't helping. His throat/roof of his mouth continued to swell and he was unable to talk. He was running a fever from at least Wednesday of last week.

Friday after my contact lens follow up.. we walked down to 7th Street to catch the "E Dash" bus and headed to City West area of Downtown. We got off at the stop by the Mayfair Hotel and walked the 2 or 3 blocks to an Urgent Care place, (which was only a couple blocks from Good Samaritan itself). Sean doesn't have a doctor still (but one of our DTLA neighbor friends gave us a referral so maybe we'll go with that one?!)

The urgent care place, ("US Healthworks") on a Friday mid-morning was not a bad situation.. Unlike the Walk-In ER at Good Samaritan there were no drunk, unbathed patients throwing up on themselves. There were no mentally ill people bothering the nurses station for a bed, (maybe that happens at night?)

At the US urgent care place we had a place to sit while we waited, there was no line of people in the hallway having to stand because there was no place for them. The room was actually clean and pretty quiet given how many people were in there. There was a TV in one corner mounted to the ceiling, and a couple vending machines (one a big coffee vending thing I didn't get near.. the candy machine I just glanced at, but it didn't have anything healthy in it at all). The whole process was a LOT shorter too.

**EDIT:

We were there a total of maybe two hours. When at the walk-in ER it can take anywhere from 5 to 8 hours just to be seen. While the urgent care place isn't ideal (it's best to have your own doctor and make appointments but sometimes you just can't, either because you don't have a doctor or you don't have insurance.

That's often the situation in many US cities.. Downtown LA isn't much different.

****END EDIT***

Part of what sped the process was that Sean had printed and filled out the paperwork at home and brought it in with him. He signed in and got called up twice: once for his paperwork and a second time to pay his co-pay. Sean has insurance through work. I know many people don't and have to go to the walk-in ER or hopefully to places like this which are a cleaner and more pleasant experience.

We waited again to be called to see a doctor. That part took about 30 or 40 minutes. The entire process took about two hours. The longest waiting was waiting to be called up to be processed. Somehow knowing you are going to be seen soon makes it a little easier. I checked my twitter and watched Dr Oz for some of the wait. (I'm still trying to figure out what Walnut Oil does for you... I couldn't hear that part of his program I just was advised it's good against "belly fat" (do you cook with it?? put it on salads? what?!) I may never know!)

Sean was diagnosed with advanced Strep throat.. So he's taking antibiotics twice a day with food.. He's still a bit run-down but he's doing much better and we were able to go see our 'double feature' yesterday.. "Sunset Blvd" at Last Remaining Seats in the morning and meeting up with friends from out of town in the afternoon for Cars 2 and dinner. We even had some ice cream at the Disney Ice Cream parlor before we headed home.

He's at home working today and hopefully will be taking it easy and not going out. He doesn't have much of an appetite and is leaning towards tea and hot soup and salads. I'm hoping by Wednesday he'll be 100%. Wednesday is "Safety Last" and the last our Last Remaining Seats tickets.

Demitasse 'Coming Soon'

I don't get around like I used to, so when we were out & about walking through Little Tokyo for "Tip a Cop" at Urth Caffe, Sean (the spouse) noticed a big "CAFE" sign being erected on the side of the Kajima Building at Weller Court.

Friday I took a couple pix of the actual Cafe front..


This is the corner where that gelato store used to be.. Honestly I only went there once as it seemed a little high end at the time to me.. I'm curious to see how the new cafe turns out.



Cafe Demitasse is on Facebook and twitter, its description on the former says: "Uncompromising in our approach to all things coffee, Demitasse pursues perfection in every cup." That honestly sounds like it wants to be another Lot 44 (the place that eventually closed on Spring Street). Hopefully this place will fare a bit better considering its main competitor in the area are the 2 Starbucks.

Personally while I like good coffee (hello? Can we get a Peet's downtown???) I don't like listening to pretentious coffee people... my husband is good for that, (and less obnoxious too) ;P

I walked by and they are still working on the build out.. I'm guessing the location will be open by the end of summer.. Maybe September if I had to pin it down. There wasn't anyone to ask (it was just construction folks there it looked like). There's little to no information on their site.. other than the social media links, (and oh they are hiring!)..

Maybe someone else has heard something?

Regardless, I think there's always room for one more coffee place (how about at 4th and Main?? Now that Banquette had to close.. we need a new sidewalk hangout!) so I wish them well of course.. Welcome to Downtown!

Cafe Demitasse
135 S. San Pedro (Weller Court near 2nd Street)
@CafeDemitasse on twitter and search for "Demitasse" on Facebook.

Lunch at Urth Caffe

Thursday was Tip a Cop at Urth Caffe, so we headed to the Arts District do our little bit. Tip a Cop is an event a public safety event involving LAPD and Special Olympics. Usually the police officers will be taking orders and serving up the food, with all tips going to Special Olympics.

We were wondering how this would work at Urth Caffe, which is a cafe that doesn't really involve table service so much as they bring the food out to the table after you order and pay at the counter. It turns out the cops weren't serving when we were there.. but we did get talk to the folks out front and ended up making our donation.

Lunch was really good.. For drinks Sean had the iced tea and I ordered a Spice Chai Boba.. We both ordered lunches that involved salad:


"Light Lunch Combo" which is a soup and salad combo..

Sean opted for the vegetarian chili... He said it was good but the consistency was more like 'soup' than traditional chili. He really enjoyed the fresh bread that accompanied his lunch.



My lunch was the Heirloom Tomatoes and Burrata Salad..

I had to leave 2/3 of the cheese behind so I didn't get in trouble on my diet, but I did sample the lower half of my bread accompaniment.. and I agree the bread is yummy! I wished I'd eaten the entire piece.

We got dessert and that's what really blew our lunch for us.. but can you blame us?

Urth Caffe Banana Cream Pie!


sliced.. with detail of the amazing graham cracker crust..

LOVED the banana cream pie! Definitely too much for one person.. and if you just want to try it, have 3 friends with you and you'll still get more than 2 bites worth.

We hadn't been to Urth Caffe in quite some time, so Tip a Cop gave us a good reason to trek out there (it's about a 20min walk from Main Street) and going off-peak lunch we were able to find a seat.

The only downside,(and this was the same problem the last time we came here together) is that we already had our food and were eating before my drink showed up. Our bill for lunch, dessert & the two drinks came to $45, another reason we don't go out of our way to eat here.. When you do, it's worth it. The food is excellent.. the service.. not consistent.


Urth Caffe
451 South Hewitt Street
(Hewitt and 5th)