Fevered Dreams

Originally posted on Aug 26 2006 on my Friendster blog.

I was sick! I had a wonderful stratospheric high fever (complete with delusions and some hallucinations) and was coughing so long and so hard that I brought up blood. Yes, I'm fine now (mostly). No, I didn't see a doctor. I don't like panadol/antibiotics/medicine. They make my saliva taste funny, make my pee smell chemical and I'm allergic to half of the antibiotics anyway. Besides, the Doc would've just told me to do what I would have done on my own. Example of a typical consultation:

Doctor: *head down and mumbling to self* High temperature... Congestion in lungs... I'll just give you some lozenges for the cough and panadol for the fever. Drink more water and get some rest. Do you want some antibiotics?

Me: Do I need the anti.... (YOU are the doctor, YOU tell me!)

Doctor: No antibiotics then. *scribbles something that ends up looking like a dog turd on my patient file*

Me: *hallucinates about putting the thermometer up the doc's nostril*

Doctor: Ok, come back in 3 days and we'll see if you are better. Next!


So I'll be about AUD$60 poorer and none the wiser. That doesn't even include the medicine. For those who only have experience with Malaysian clinics/polyclinics, things work differently here. You go and see the doctor so you can pay him to tell you what you ALREADY know ("You have a fever / cough / missing leg") and then you go somewhere ELSE to buy your medicine.

Can you imagine being too sick to drive or not having access to a car? You'll have to get in a cab to go to the doctor, wait for hours, get your prescription, pay, then get into another cab to go to the pharmacist, wait in line again, pay for your medicine and THEN get into another cab to go home. You'll be lucky if you don't keel over and die while waiting in line. Oh, and half the time they don't know what's wrong with you so they either send you off somewhere else for some hideously expensive tests OR prescribe some medicine they THINK should work and ask you to come back to see if it actually worked.

Sigh. That's why I don't see a doctor unless I can't get better by myself. I think going to the doctor would make me sicker.