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On falling sick

It happened. I fell sick. I rarely fall sick. I rarely see physicians. Not because I have anything against them or a fear of needles or whatever, I am general not unhealthy and have so far gone without health issues.

It started with a fever. I thought it was a one off. Maybe I imagined the fever. I woke up the next day, I felt a bit tired, this and that hurt but whatever, its a Wednesday, what do you expect. Well, it got worse at work. I sat there and I felt tired. I felt hot, I felt my head hurt, I felt like throwning up, going home, etc. I went home, fully intending to do my taxes only to barely make my way home and crash in bed. I took an asprin and I went to bed. I woke up a few hours later and thought I felt a lot better. I probably did. For a bit.

The next day was worse. I woke up sweating. I took a shower, had some breakfast and thought I felt better. So I headed off to work. I had many reasons to go. I don't like missing a day of work. I thought I could make it through the day. And I figured my doctor worked by the office and that I would go see him if I felt bad during the day. And so I went to work. I was not feeling well. I made an appointment to see my physician and luckily, I got to see him around 2. They made me fill up a bunch of forms again, stuff I had already filled the last time, but anyway. Once that was done, I got to see the doctor.

I explained my problems he did his examination and he gave me a prescription. So far, so good. He seemed to have an explanation, I was satisfied. I went and got my prescription filled at the new Walgreens by his office. I had to pay $20 for my copay for my prescription. I had to pay $15 at the doctor's office. The doctor had given me 1 pill. He gave me a prescription for 9 more. The receipt from Walgreens says that the 9 pills cost 126.59. That's slightly over $14 a pill. Wow!

I didn't go back to work. I walked to the bus stop and got on a rather packed bus and headed home. Halfway through the bus ride, I felt like I was going to faint. I felt like I was going to fall down, I couldn't hear clearly and I could barely see. That did not feel good. Thankfully, I got a seat soon after. I sat down and 10 minutes later, I felt a lot better. That scared the crap out of me. It is not often that ones gets a reminder of how mortal and powerless one is... but it is a good remindeer to heed. Little bacteria are more powerful than I am. Anyway, somehow, I made it home, drank a glass of water, ate a slice of toast and took the large peach coloured pill. Then I went to bed.

I slept for 3 hours, woke up and felt a whole lot better. I even took the opportunity to use my newly acquired thermometer. You see, I didn't have one or felt the need for one until my doctor asked me if I knew what my temperature had been. I stuck it in my mouth, it took a few seconds and then it beeped. Viola, it was 98.5 ° F. The thermometer still bugs me a bit... I checked this morning and it said it was 97.5 ° Fahrenheit. I don't think the human body likes fluctuations of that sort. Oh and the thermometer packaging had gory details on how to take temperatures via the mouth, the underarm and the rectum.

Anyway, I took an asprin, headed to bed and woke up feeling decent. I decided not to go to work though, rather, I worked from home. I have to honestly say that I got a good deal accomplished working from home. Its peaceful to work at my desk with my coffee and my bathroom whenever nature calls. Not to mention not having to mask that annoying nutjob Geiger's voice with the radio.

And I'd like to end with a rant. I've yet to take a day off work due to illness. I am not trying to be a bit of a cocky rascal. But, the whole length of my working career (which has been all of 5 or 6 years I think), I've had the opportunity to take time off if I fall ill with no loss of vacation. Why? Because I think that is what a progressive society does. If you're ill, you get time off. So that you don't infect others (should you have a communicable illness), so that you can recover quicker and come back to work sooner rather than drag your illness out longer. Now, I don't know if it is in the name of efficiency or something else that a lot of the companies here in the United States and especially the one I work for have decided to pawn off these so called personal days and wash their hands off the problem, but I think that is quite the wrong approach.

I think Americans are hard working people. I remember during the merger time, these poor sods would catch flights at ungodly hours, sit in offices on the phone for hours on end and waste away their lives. I thought that was merely merger related. That turned out not to be the case. They ALL do that here ALL the time. I meet some of them that actually pretend to have a life. Some actually do, but that is more the exception than not the case. Add to that the sparse numbers of days of actual santioned vacation, you have a country of hard working people who I suspect do no better than Canadians or French or English or Chinese for that matter in terms of productivity. So then, why live like that?

I know some people abuse sick days. We used to have a fellow who worked where I did in Canada who took 22 or so Mondays off sick in a year. That's quite a few Mondays. And people like that need to be watched over. Maybe he was genuinely sick, or maybe he was just a lazy bastard who abused the system. But to punish all of us, to tar and feather us all to justify catching that fellow is a smidge unfair. Its actually downright stupid.

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