As you can tell from the paucity of postings, it has been One Hell of a Month! It rained heavily and was overcast for nearly all of the past month. This is bad for doing photoshoots and for showing houses. Then, a week ago, I came down with a nasty bug: sore throat, very bad cough, headache, body aches and difficulty sleeping. I couldn't take any days off because I had clients. Yesterday morning I got up and it was worse than ever. At 8:30 I emailed my doctor with the symptoms. Fifteen minutes later (!) she emailed back saying that we needed to test for COVID and Flu. By noon a male nurse was at my house doing the tests. The results were available in just a few minutes: negative for both. So what I had was a bacterial infection of the throat. He had with him the appropriate antibiotic and I immediately took the first one. It is now the next morning and I am about to take the second pill (one pill a day for seven days). Already there is a real improvement. I mentioned to the nurse that I wished this kind of service was available in Canada. He just looked at me quizzically: "Why not?" Ah yes, why not indeed!
The cost of this extremely prompt service including the home visit, tests and antibiotic? $1,590 MXN or $86 US.
I don't know what the psychic cost of the long waiting lists in Canada comes to--about forty weeks for an MRI, even longer to see a specialist--but I'm sure it is significant. As soon as my doctor emailed back I started to feel better.
Looking for a visual for this post, it's been so rainy that I hardly have any. Here is one taken from my terrace of a fullish moon just after dawn:
This might be a suitable piece of music:
4 comments:
Bryan, the biggest healthcare concern for many Canadians is the shortage of family physicians. Where have all the GPs gone? About 6.5 millian Canadians are without a family doctor. I know of a fellow in BC who translated his collection of classical LPs into a spot on a doctor's patient list. Having seen the doctor as a walk-in patient and learned of their mutual love of good music, my friend dropped a "thank you" gift of several vintage recordings at the clinic. Shortly afterwards, a call came that there was room for him in the practice! It pays to be in the right place at the right time (and to have a good recording of Rach 3!).
You know, I never had a family doctor in Canada. Even before I left in 1998 I had the feeling that they were less and less accessible.
I am pleased to hear that you are feeling better and the anti-biotics are doing their job. Happy listening (and listing).
Steady improvement! Thanks for the well-wishes.
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