Everyone is sick.
Everyone in the IES program is ill in some fashion or another. This past Monday, our theatre production included a Tinkerbell who was spending time between scenes sleeping off her fever, a clown who'd just recovered from walking pneumonia, an antiques dealer with a cough, and an assortment of other coughs and headaches and ailments.
I was the mechanical doll with the ear infection.
I woke up on Sunday unable to hear out of my left ear, much like I was on an airplane. I tried yawning and standing on my head, to no effect, and went through Sunday and Monday feeling off-balanced. On Tuesday, I sent a Facebook message to Jennifer, my favorite daughter-of-an-ear-and-throat-doctor. However, my host mom insisted I go the doctor, and after stopping by IES on Wednesday, I booked an appointment for that afternoon.
The doctor I went to see met me in an office--an office like a business office. The walls were decorated with architectural drawings of opera houses and paintings of the Egyptian goddess Isis. The doctor himself wore a suit; no white coat here. He spoke English to me, which absolutely helped, because a healthcare situation is one of the situations in which you want to hear your native tongue.
After the quickest examination ever, he informed me that I did indeed have a small ear infection and he then wrote me up a prescription and, after noticing my solemn expression, assured me that I was not going to die.
I walked a block to the pharmacy and presented the prescription to the woman behind the counter, and in five minutes I walked out with cough syrup, ibuprofen, and an antibiotic. Of course, when I got home, I decided to do some internet sleuthing to see how the prices compared, because we make a big deal out of socialized medicine and healthcare and I just wanted to see how much I'd saved. As it turns out, while a ten minute doctor's appointment for a small issue in the states costs $68, I got my twenty minute doctor's appointment for a small issue and all three of my medications for about $46. I don't even live here permanently, but thanks France. In the states I'm pretty sure I would have let it go unless I was legitimately going deaf.
No comments:
Post a Comment