"i went to thailand and all i got was this lousy prescription drug addiction"

If I could say one thing about the Thai health care system, it's that they aren't stingy with the pills.

I found myself back in the clinic today. On Friday afternoon, I started feeling sick. My throat was fine, but my nose was runny and my head felt stuffy. I spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday in bed, sneezing and coughing. Yesterday, I convinced myself that I was almost better and didn't need to see a doctor, but last night the snottiness hadn't improved.

By today, the coughing had stopped completely and the sneezing wasn't too bad, but the snot remained. I took my runny nose to the clinic with the idea of getting a simple decongestant. I left with five - count them, five! - medications.

A decongestant,
an antihistamine,
a pain/fever reducer,
a cough suppressant,
and an antibiotic.

Perhaps it's just that they haven't learned to combine medicines so that one prescription treats multiple symptoms.

I looked them up, and the antibiotic is used to treat pharyngitis, tonsillitis, pneumonia, acute maxillary sinusitis, Lyme disease, and a few other things. I suppose my cold could turn into sinusitis.

I'll definitely take the decongestant, and I might take the antibiotic. I won't be needing the rest, and I'm not sure why the doctor gave it to me in the first place, since I described one symptom to him.

Let's just hope I don't come down with anything more serious than the sniffles. Who knows what they'd give me!