Thursday, June 30, 2011

always look on the bright side of life

As I mentioned a few times on FB, I've been fighting a fever all week. I tried to keep it relatively on the DL... first of all, no one wants to be sick while they're on vacation. Secondly, my sister and her husband had plans to head off on their first night without kids since, well, having kids in the first place... 10 years ago. So sick or otherwise, I was not letting them back out.

I woke up today and knew I wasn't going to kick this without help. Off we went to the local urgent care facility; it's like a doctor's office that runs like an ER. After a 10 minute wait, a very nice doctor (but no where near as nice as my own family doc) saw me. "Normally I'd have waited this out, but we're traveling and I don't want it to get out of control." "Really? A fever for 3 days and trouble breathing: I think it's already out of control!" Ok, gotcha.

One script later we were out the door. Episodes like this make me think about our insurance system. I feel incredibly lucky to have the policy we do. While cost is a factor when we go to be seen, it's not a limiting one. If we need to be seen, we go. But I know that is a luxury to many. I can't imagine living paycheck to paycheck, praying no one gets sick because there is no money to pay the office visit ($104 and change for today; I paid my $15 copay) never mind any medicines. (I hate to imagine what even generic azithromycin cost.)


I am officially on the road to recovery; my sister and brother in law are on their get-away; and WB's presentation is done, to rave reviews. While this was not part of the plan, it's sometimes good to be reminded that needing medical care out of state is still less damaging financially than getting sick at home is for many.

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