Live & Let Die

Oh my god I have bronchitis! How hienous is that? Yesterday I got home from school and I couldnt even take a nap I was so feverish and uncomfortable. I finally, after two weeks of just trying to wait it out, went to the doctor. Of course he examined me - listened to my heart and my complaints, etc.

My bill came back over 1,600 baht! What the 'ef? The nurses are telling me that its so cheap compared to America. But that only works when Im an American living in America making an American salary. Sorry, but when Im an American living Thailand and making a Thai salary 1,600 baht to treat a cold is much too expensive.

What could possibly have caused such a monetary riot? The medication of course! I grow increasingly angry the more I think about the pharmasutical industry. It requires a sort of blind faith in the medical practitioner; he knows what is best for me. So he prescribes me the only thing that could possibly restore my health. But whats to say that hes not just giving me some lame placebos?
So this doctor had written a prescription without running it by me (that part I understand, since I dont speak Thai) and dude gave me all the medications under the sun. I had a bag of little yellow pills for a runny nose, purple pills for my sinuses, foil packets for my cough, something else possibly a multivitamin, and finally (the real treasure) the antibiotics. I'm a regular ole run-of-the-mill amoxocillin kind of gal. But of course, since the medical industry is like everything else and centers around money rather than practical health care, he prescribed me the most expensive antibiotics possible! Hate!
After much drama I finally get the bill down to a more reasonable 650 baht. I leave satisfied and eagerly await this illness to subside. Being sick is lame. I deeply question the ethics in the pharmacy.



On a less interesting note I finished this scarf for Veronica. I wanted to post the picture since Im really proud of it. I think the pompons are the most wonderfully charmings accoutrament I have ever given an accessory. But I dont feel like writing about it right now since all I really want to do is go home and go back to bed.
Oh yes, and Monday is a holiday but I have no idea what Im going to.