You can also take straight up ginger tablets that have powdered ginger or ginger extract in them. It doesn't cost that much and you just take them as needed. I'd also recommend just checking out the supplement aisle at a grocery store for anything that says it should relieve nausea.

Also, ginger ale! Especially if you can get a kind that doesn't have a bunch of sugar added & that has real ginger in it.

I agree with Sacrelicious that figuring out the cause is really important. I've gotten really nauseous from taking vitamins or ibuprofen on an empty stomach, unknown food allergies, dehydration, stress, migraines, and PMS.

If you're getting really nauseated before your period starts, it could be a hormonal imbalance. Birth control pills might help with that; I use progesterone cream that a naturopath prescribed me and it's really made an amazing difference with all my PMS symptoms, including nausea and migraines.

If the nausea is coming soon after you eat, it could be food allergy or sensitivity, especially if you have pollen allergies. I went to an allergist because my hay fever was getting out of control and that's when I found out I also have food allergies.

I tried ginger tea in the past and it sometimes helped a little, but I would still be nauseous all day. I've had a few times where I couldn't stop throwing up - last time my bf took me to urgent care and I got a prescription for a few pills of promethazine, an anti-nausea drug. It works really well, but makes me super sleepy. I don't know if Dramamine or other over-the-counter drugs for motion sickness would also work, but some people use them to relieve general nausea.

Traditional Medicinals sell some very effective herbal teas. I have used their Throat Coat and Breathe Easy teas and found them helpful. They make an Organic Ginger Aid tea that may be helpful. I have found their products in Fred Meyer and other local markets.

http://www.traditionalmedicinals.com/GingerAid

Christina L's recipe for homemade ginger tea would be good also. Of course, these methods will work to settle your upset stomach. Once you feel the nausea has passed you need to try to get some (bland) food in your stomach. Sometimes nausea can be a constant feedback loop of not eating because you feed upset and then when you don't eat the symptoms return. Hunger and an empty stomach/gut can sometimes make you feel nauseous.

Do you have any indication that you might be affected by an inner ear infection that is affecting your sense of balance and making you nauseous? This would require a visit to a doctor or clinic.

You need to work toward solving the question of what is bringing this on. Do some logging of what you are eating and when (food reaction), the different environments you are spending time in (possible allergic reaction to chemicals in the air), movement (inner ear issues), etc. You may began to see a pattern to your bouts that are not immediately obvious to you right now.

Peel a fresh 2-inch knob of ginger root and slice it into thin slices. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Once water is boiling, add the ginger. Cover the saucepan and reduce heat to a simmer for 15-20 minutes. Strain the tea. Add honey and lemon to taste.

Or go to a grocery or drug store or health foods market to get boxed ginger tea.

Are you taking any medications? If you take pills on an empty stomach (like antibiotics), you can get nauseated. That happened to me when I was taking them in the morning once, and I couldn't figure out why I had morning sickness with no chance of being pregnant.

Any chance of food allergies or sensitivities?

Is it just nausea, or full-on digestive issues (like diarrhea, constipation, vomiting)?

I can't think of any home remedy for nausea that's going to be better than addressing the problem causing it. You may need to talk to a doctor to pinpoint what that is.

First, full disclosure: I work for this clinic. In fact, it's my job to promote our services to the public.

Still, I recommend Bastyr Center for Natural Health, both professionally and personally. Bastyr Center is the teaching clinic of Bastyr University. Bastyr is the largest natural health university in the U.S., so it's likely that any local ND (and maybe even your ND in New York) earned their degree there. Since they are a teaching clinic, you will be seen by two or three students, under the supervision of a licensed ND. They have 40-50 NDs on staff and the front desk folks can help direct to the the right doc based on your specific needs (and your schedule). Since they're a teaching clinic, rates are relatively low. They accept most insurance plans and if yours isn't included, they also offer income-based discounts (up to 80% off) and a 30% discount for paying in full at the time of your visit. They also provide nutrition, counseling, acupuncture and Oriental medicine services and the NDs will refer you as they deem appropriate.

Personally, I've had great success with my doc, Hazel Philp. My wife recently had an emergent health issue and saw Dr. Brendan Smith, now chief resident. We were both extremely pleased with his care and his round-the-clock availability during a scary time. If you're not into the student aspect, about half of the docs also provide one-on-one care at the clinic in a setting we term "Pratitioner Care." You can check out the website at: BastyrCenter.org.

Good luck finding the right doc!

Institute of Complementary Medicine.
http://www.icmedicine.com/

I've seen Dr. Celmer and Dr. Risley for holistic care and they are both wonderful. Also, the clinic is really good at making sure alternative types of tests and lab work is covered by insurance.

I highly recommend that you check out Seattle Healing Arts not only for an ND, but for a wholistic health care environment of exceptional quality: http://www.seattlehealingarts.com/

Separate bedrooms. Tragic, indeed, but making your partner lose sleep night after night is so much worse than the separate bedroom arrangement until the solution you want is at hand.

I have heard good things about the oral appliance, though. It works for someone/ a couple I know, and they have the expensive kind. I'm no help as far as how to acquire one without shelling out the dough.. But, the one free and accessible change is with sleeping quarters.

Tennis ball and a t-shirt don't work for you? (You sew the ball to the shirt so you don't sleep on your back)

I would strongly recommend the cheap boil and bite method first (they're $30 or so) just to see if using an oral device isn't going to cause you to gag. There's no point in dropping thousands on something that you can't tolerate in your mouth, and a cheapy mouthguard style device is a good test. Plus, they do work well enough for some people.

Have you considered those adheasive band aide devices which hold the nasal passages open? Can't think of what they're called...."Breath Right"?

Yuck. I had the exact same issue when I went to the women's health care clinic at UWMC Roosevelt - $500 something that Regence wouldn't pay for "surgery" for looking at a cyst on my ear. Also Regence wouldn't pay for my preventative care lab fees, which were another $300 or so. I was so mad I quit both Regence and UW and switched to Group Health, which has been much cheaper for me with an individual plan.

Unfortunately I think when you check in for your appointment you probably consented to financial responsibility for all fees, even though they don't tell you what they are in advance, and the front desk people probably couldn't tell you if you asked them. You might have signed something on paper or electronically - not sure how VM does it.

I think you should still compain, but do it in writing. Here's the info from VM's website (https://www.virginiamason.org/body.cfm?id=1304):

If the concern relates to billing, the billing office, at (206) 223-6601, will be happy to handle any financial questions you may have. Billing representatives are available Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

If a problem is not resolved to your satisfaction, the hospital has a Grievance Committee. To file a grievance, you should contact the Patient Relations Department by calling (206) 223-6616, or by writing the Patient Relations Department at:

Patient Relations
Virginia Mason Medical Center C1-PTR
P.O. Box 900 
Seattle, WA 98111-0900

Unless you withdraw your grievance or otherwise indicate that your grievance has been addressed to your satisfaction, the Grievance Committee will respond in writing within a reasonable time (but not to exceed thirty (30) days). The response will describe the steps taken to investigate your grievance, the results of the investigation and when the review was completed. The response will also give you the name, telephone number and address of a person to contact if you remain dissatisfied.

You also have the option to call the Washington Department of Health Complaint Investigation Line at (800) 633-6828 to pursue your grievance. You may pursue that option in addition to or instead of the Grievance Committee.

You being referred to downtown sounds like it may be the key element. You were not informed upfront that by going downtown, you'd be charged an extra $600 - and you were sent downtown by the Lynnwood satellite. It wasn't your idea.

Yeah, it's Washington State Attorney General's Office for Consumer Affairs territory. Russ's advice sounds good.

In addition to the resources that LMNOP cites, I also suggest calling the SVI Dental Clinic: 206-587-4973.
PS: When you say you are having difficulty getting into the student clinic at UW, do you mean that it's out of your neighborhood, or there aren't any appointments available? Have you been seen there before? Is your filling too complicated for the students to treat?

Have you checked next door at the UW Dept of Oral Medicine clinic? 206-685-2937

Their door is literally the next one after Dental Urgent Care at the main UW hospital.

I've been going there for years and pay about $80-130 for a filling depending on what kind of is. I never have a problem making an appointment, but I do tend to schedule a few weeks out...

I've been seeing Dr. Scheve at Seattle Women's Clinic for about 6 years now and couldn't be more pleased. http://www.minorandjames.com/services/obstetrics-gynecology-ob-gyn-womens-health-wa.php Sorry to hear that Elbie started to have issues with that clinic. I've got some non-traditional issues and they've been wonderful. They are SUPER queer friendly, too, which has been great for some of my pals...for both routine exams and for the healthy baby they just birthed. And I've just learned, in the last few years, that I have 5 other friends seeing different doctors within the Seattle Women's Clinic, and they all love their doctors, too (one friend lives in Tacoma, but always made the drive for her doctor. Even through her pregnancy and delivery, she felt safest withe them for her high-risk pregnancy).

Dr. Scheve, in particular, has such a delightful bedside manner. She's very friendly and open, truly listens to me. At our first meeting, she had to be "scolded" by her nurse for chatting too long with me before the exam had even begun (she meets you in person and you chat before you change into the gown. So you get to meet as a PERSON first, which is nice). Honestly, her nurse is friggin fantastic, as well. The Gardasil vaccine takes multiple-visits, and I was having trouble missing so much work to get the shots (I work in Everett, but drive downtown because I love this doctor so much) and her nurse was able to change her personal schedule to help me out, which is amazing!

Their clinic made the choice to eliminate all drug reps several years ago. They wanted to be doctors, not drug pushers. Minor and James, as a whole, made the same choice a year or so after Seattle Women's Clinic did, and had some push-back from some of their clinics, but Seattle Women's was able to proudly proclaim that they were already doing that.

Also, and while this isn't related to the medical care at all, their office has the MOST GORGEOUS VIEWS of Seattle. Honestly, breath-taking from the 15th floor of the tower. I tend to take their first appointment of the day, so I miss less work, and watching sunrise over the water...great stuff!

I LOVVVVE Dr Anna Daniel at Seattle OBGYN

http://www.seaobgyn.com/daniel.html

Everything I (a neuro nerd) want in a doc: exceptional expertise, amazing bedside manner, GENTLE (for this field in particular!), and funny... she has it all. I have a hunch if she isn't available, the others there would be a-ok.

That said, before finding them, I went to Seattle Women's Clinic right down the road (1229 Madison) and while for regular stuff they were totally fine, when problems eventually arose, they showed their squeamishmess in dealing with anything but traditional birth control-pregnancy-healthy babies, so I swapped out, despite ALL my records/my PCP who is the best.doc.ever being in their practice (that would be Dr. Hodges at Minor and James; Swedish is definitely the largest/most accessible system in town, though I'd argue Virginia Mason by far has the best HOSPITAL for overnight stays, in part because they can actually cater to dietary needs without starving folks on jell-o and decaf folgers!)...

Good thing about OBGYNs=until you get pregnant, they're a bit like psychiatry--they handle that stuff and unless you have VERY special circumstances (in which case the specialisty handling your condition--neurology, rheumatology, etc--would be most critical), they do their thing while others do their own. It's like a separate little part of our worlds except for systemic issues or pregnancy risks. I feel TOTALLY okay with her managing my "doctors are the worst patients because they want to control everrything" care and truly being half of every decision in this regard, and if I were able to be pregnant (got that nipped in the bud but still use barrier protection of course for STDs!), I would cry if she went out of town and couldn't deliver because I would fret about the one who was in part helping raise my fetal wunderkin being absent for the birthday party.

Hope that helps. There probably *are* great gyn's at M&J, and if you want a quicker appt, I'd seriously say make whatever's FASTER for the meds and see Dr Daniel whenever she can get you! THAT SAID, ANY primary can do that here--they can give narcs, birth control, even advanced biologics while you're in transition--that's why I heart Hodges, too. He is a god amongst wannabes, and remember, I'm that "worst patient for bad doctors, best patient for rockstars" and he likes me just fine, cause he kicks bootayyyy and has SUPERB humor! M+J have 2 total rock stars, him and Davies, should you ever need an endo. I admittedly don't know too many too well and have a policy "don't go to a colleague for care" as that=awkward!! Welcome to Seatown :)

Major beach areas have plenty of English speaking, USA trained dentists and doctors. It's well worth the extra cost of staying Puerto Vallarta or Cabo instead of El Paso to cross over to Juarez. Plenty of cheap hotel packages in PV or Cancun for recovery time.

Any in-land city with some kind of expat community has a clinics for their needs. Look at boards for recommendations. SMA/Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Oaxaca, Cuernavaca etc. I'm happy with fillings from a GTO dentist for $15 each. A year later I got a filling in the US that failed and needed a root canal, if I hadn't been in pain I would have gone to Mex to fix it.

Mexican dentists are every bit as good as American ones. Make sure you get one with a fluently English-speaking staff (unless you speak good Spanish) so that you'll know what's going on the whole time.

I would spend some time googling for personal accounts and recommendations. I found this:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/12/20/121018/65

which points out that one consideration is that if you are getting serious surgery, such as an impacted wisdom tooth, you either don't want to go to Mexico or you want to stay there for a while, because your Mexican drug prescription can't be filled here and you can't legally bring prescription meds across the border -- and if you have surgery you will need prescription painkillers. For stuff like crowns, though -- go for it.

Also: http://www.slate.com/id/2159938/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/17/AR2007061701297.html

Interestingly, some American dentists are opening up shop in Mexico to become part of their own competition.

One drawback: the vast majority of the clinics that cater to Americans are found in the border towns of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, which, while far from being as dangerous as they are made out to be, are still pretty grotty places to vacation. You're much better off finding a place somewhere you'd actually like to visit!

My mother tells me I should go to Idaho and get my dental work done since she pays way less than I do at my fancy city dentist. In the same conversation she tells me how a friends son died recently from complications from a routine colonoscopy, also gotten on the cheap in Idaho.

If Idaho is unsafe for healthcare then Mexico is completely out of the question. Don't be cheap when it comes to your health.

While Neighborcare is alright for an emergency temp filling, one thing to note is that if it is one of your back teeth having an ache, they'll use amalgam... and they don't do root canals, should that be needed, on molars, only on "easy to access" front ones.

If it's a filling you need, not a root canal, regardless of tooth, I've had INCREDIBLE work done, all composite fillings, at Community Health Snohomish--it's a bit of a journey, but it's SO worth it. I've been to the one at 21st and Yesler, and the wait was 7 hours of me in agony--eating a 21 Rabbits bar cracked a molar from a rather massive hard as a rock seed (maybe a rock)-- after showing up before they even opened the doors. For the emergency thing, Neighborcare might fill it on the spot (if it's needing a filling, that is), but it'll be silver if it's not a front tooth.

UW has a bit of a wait, and they don't do "complicated" services, so it's a little iffy if you're looking at root canals.

Lee Endodontics (this is for root canal stuff on back teeth since the community clinics don't do anything tricky), btw, has a low fee schedule regardless of the person--designed for the mass of uninsured folks in the dental department... their root canals on the far back teeth--the most expensive--are $1065 or were at the end of last year, at least. That is obviously a better deal than the $2500 most spots. If it's a front tooth, most spots can handle them. Lee is up in Shoreline... 13344 1st Ave NE #202, Seattle - (206) 453-349

Community Health of Snohomish is in Lynnwood:
4111 194th St SW # 101, Lynnwood, WA
(425) 835-5204

Having been to both Neighborcare and Comm.Health Snoho, I would never go back to the Georgetown clinic. The dentist didn't even pay attention to the huge print for both a latex AND nickel allergy--I could've wound up in the ER because he was a-ok with proceeding and only after my mouth was full and numb and he was about to start did I ask--wary--if he did composites, which they don't (no clue why unless it's just harder to handle--I HAD insurance then, too! I just needed emergency care and wasn't established with any regular provider yet so I had to hit a community center)...

Oh, and the other warning: if you need a root canal and can't pay, the option is unpleasant (extraction ie yank it out!) Hopefully, even if you have to give up some luxury for a while as I did/do, you can figure out what to skimp on, whether it's a gym membership, beer, cable TV, or artisan bread and cheese (I finally saved up the $1k for the root canal, so I can only say Dr Lee is affordable and Dr Liu recommended him--no review one way or the other--but I'm certainly glad I got the cash figured out since the temporary filling is breaking down bit by bit!)

Your best bet is one of the Neighborcare dental clinics or the UW Dental School - more info on this previous question:

Does anyone know a good sliding scale dentist?

I went to the Neighborcare clinic on Yesler & 21st several years ago for a toothache - was finally able to get a filling for $25 or $50, but had to wait 2 days for an emergency spot to open. You have to get there super early in the morning and wait outside the door - the line forms before they even open. Bring proof of income to get the sliding scale discount.

http://www.pnwfertility.com/

My wife and numerous friends suffering from similar difficulties have gone to Dr. Xia at Seattle Acupunture & Herb Clinic.

Part of the regimen involves taking unusual herbal supplements and boiling up strange and offensive-smelling teas, but Dr. Xia is, judging by her successes, VERY well-attuned to the magic and mystery of womanhood and fertility.

Here is the latest information about immunizations through the King County Public Health clinics:

http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/locations/immunization.aspx

Text:
Where to go in King County for adult immunizations
If you need immunizations for work:

If you need a TB (tuberculin) skin test, Hepatitis B, or other immunizations for work, you can look for an occupational health clinic in your area, such as:

Valley Medical Center Occupational Health Clinic
Health Force Occupational Health Clinic
US Health Works
If you need help finding a doctor, please call:

Community Health Access Program (CHAP): 206-284-0331 or 1-800-756-5437
CHAP staff can refer you to a local a Public Health Family Health Clinic and/or a Community Health Clinic. These clinics offer full health services, including immunizations. If you do not have medical coverage, clinic fees are based on your income.

If you need help finding immunizations only, many pharmacies in King County offer immunizations. Ask at the pharmacies near your home.

Walgreens or king county public health.

If you are on the low-end of income spectrum, you might try the Central Area Dental Clinic on Yesler. They charge on a sliding fee scale. A young woman I know went to them and got 4 fillings. They didn't do them all at the same time; it took 3 visits; I guess because of the number of appts. they try to get in in one day? Because they knew she wasn't working and so not limited on time? Don't know. But, it was next to $0, she had no income, and her experience with the dentists was good (she saw 3 different ones). Hard not to find the following repelling, but be assured that the brusque, bordering on rude, front desk staff are not an indication of the service and attitudes from the dental people; they seemed glad to be there and actually like people :-)