As most of you know, here at Schloss Bodissey our family has been in the midst of a health care crisis for the better part of a month.It all began with the future Baron, who came down with H1N1 early in November. The swine flu later gave way to several alarming sequelae, including double pneumonia. This last batch of (dreadfully expensive) antibiotics seems to have done the trick, and now he is very much on the mend. If his recovery continues at this rate, after a final checkup at the doctor’s on Monday, I will be able to take him back to Blacksburg.
Dymphna is also recovering, but more slowly. Our family doctor doesn’t think she ever had pneumonia, but even so the antibiotics had a dramatic effect on her, killing the fever and reducing her cough considerably. She presumably had some sort of bacterial infection that responded to the new medicine — which, judging by the price per gram, must have been compounded from gold dust, saffron, and cocaine.
My own viral infection has all but disappeared. For the first time in a week, I woke up this morning with no chest congestion, and thanked the Lord that at least one of us was spared the X-rays and the antibiotics.
Unless there is a change for the worse, this will be the last of the health crisis updates. Dymphna will make the occasional appearance here as her condition improves.
I’m grateful that all this occurred before the passage of Obamacare.
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16 comments:
Antibiotics...thank god for antibiotics! One of the greates inventions ever made!
...or maybe 'discoveries' would be the right word!
Good to hear Baron.No news like good news. May I suggest a toast with a fine brandy or cognac of your choice. Here's to you and yours health! Take care and All the Best for yas..
This last batch of (dreadfully expensive) antibiotics
Na well. If you had a EUROPEAN health care system you wouldd either get them free, OR for a couple of Euro. (Dollars for you, I guess).
"...which, judging by the price per gram, must have been compounded from gold dust, saffron, and cocaine."
Hey, you left out the black Perigord truffles!
Furor, actually no, what they'd get would depend where they were. In the UK and other areas where medication is free at the point of delivery they'd most likely get generics and be told to come back in three weeks for something more potent if it wasn't working. In France they'd have to pay full whack for the drugs and then their insurance, private or public, would pay back the cost, but they'd get what they actually needed rather than what the state decided they needed.
I quite like France in that regard. If they got rid if the public insurer and cut taxes accordingly it wouldn't make any difference to the healthcare system because it functions on payment at the point of delivery, so there's no rationing and cost-cutting through the substitution of ineffective but cheap drugs.
My country has an universal healthcare system. The government pays only for the cheapest drugs. If you want something more fancy, you pay the difference. It's something like the future of the Western European medical plans and it's creepy considering I slept on the hallway of the hospital after I had surgery once. :|
Oh, I always forget to say something. The US system is crappy too due to the fact that it's not market based at all. The government passed all kinds of regulations that circumvented any market pressures on the cost of care, which lead to this issue.
Baron - I mentioned to Dymphna earlier - garlic ('Russian penicillin')is excellent for lung/chest ailments, a natural addition to the admittedly powerful but occasionally counterproductive modern antibiotics. It certainly won't do any harm and really the only disadvantage is a garlic breath.
Best wishes to Dymphna for a speedy recovery,
thll
Of course drugs are expensive here. Someone has to subsidize those drug companies so the rest of the socialized world can get their drugs cheap and benefit from the new research.
My lungs are slowly clearing after a week and I've only done the supplements along with 'help me God'
Much vita C,D,B,A,zinc,ginger root,tumeric.
My 91 year old mother who I am looking after has been untouched.
I know someone else is doing a better job looking after her than I.
God is good as He always reminds His children how frail and needy they are of His mercy and help.
Thanks for your kind comments everyone:
Boru--
I was thinking maybe a White Russian. Or an Irish Whiskey. That's because we have the ingredients on hand. A hot lemon/honey/whiskey toddy would be the best. If I have any honey left.
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Furor Teutonicus:
Your cheap medications are paid for by the prices Big Pharma charges Americans. Next time you buy some cheap prescription, how about a salute to those kind Americans?
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Francis!
Black truffles! You do get around. An acquaintance of ours, a wealthy fellow who worked for OAS, bought some fresh truffle slices once when we happened to be visiting. They pack them in rice, which gives the rice a lovely redolence.
But how would they be as they are here? Packed in brine, I mean. Anyway, that page has wonderful goodies. I'd love to find someone to go halfsies on the Madagascar vanilla beans, for example. I like to make batches of dry mocha and the bean flavors it nicely.
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Archonix--
Can't remember where I read it now (maybe Financial Times, but the French system is buckling also. Again, the weight of the dead hand of govt on any enterprise will eventually bring it down to a poor level.
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rebellious vanilla: spot on. There are so many interferences in the US health care system that it's been de facto govt-run for a long time. The casket of ObamaCare is merely a container for an already failing body. We haven't had a market-based health care system since before WWII. And we're not likely to ever see one again.
What we get next will be much like the UK system: dysfunctional, expensive, and cookie-cutter care.
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thll--
I committed your recipe to memory. When the B goes to the health food store he'll get the raw honey.
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Spackle-- they not only expensive, they're not necessarily needful. A small bottle (? 6 oz) of cough medicine with hydrocodone in it is 100.00. But the docs won't give you an equivalent amount of hydrocodone and let you make your own with Robitussin or something similar. That would cost about 35.00 but the DEA gets antsy.
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Marcel--
My supplementation routine is much the same, though larger bec. of chronic asthma. I didn't get an antibiotic till they xrayed and found pneumonia to match my fever.
Only three more days of that and I'm done. Will avoid yeast infection by eating yoghurt and taking probiotics.
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There is a new brand of Emergency Medicine and we ran into it last week seeking help when the doctor's office was closed. It's part of the local community hospital, which already has one emergency room. We've been there more than once over the years, so we decided to try their second edition.
I haven't gotten the bill yet, but I presume it will be more robust than we are. The care was excellent, instant, and very pleasant. I did submit my copayment so it showed up on my credit card bill. I was looking for something else and found a charge for "Standing Ed". So I googled ol' Ed and found out that this is a chain of ERS: first rate equipment, and rooms instead of curtains drawn around an otherwise public space. We walked ten steps to the xray room.
To boot, we were in and out of Standing Ed in less than an hour. Not your usual ER experience.
I will wait with trepidation for our bills, though.
@ TB-- About anitbiotics. Yeah, they're great, but it's so hard to find meat that's not laced with it. So when you're really sick, a plain old antibiotic doesn't work anymore.
And ANTI-antibiotic meat is pricey! Plus they feed the animals with soy graini and I'm not supposed to have soy.
Grass fed beef is hard to find, also.
Argentine beef is the very best you can get. I can't believe it would be that expensive in the US.
Archonix=-
IIRC, we slap heavy tariffs on South American anything. We do not play nicely with others, especu=ially not when the national beef council, or whatever its's called, is waiting to pounce.
The depth of ignorance about reciprocal trade agreements is abysmal. Or was last time I looked (in that case we were slapping resctrictions on South American ethanols)...
It would make an interesting area of study but it would never get funded by this admin or the one before it.
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