Ridiculous

So last night I had another realization of how ridiculously blessed I am. I've been sick for the past couple of weeks. What started out as a cough that I think was caused by allergies turned into some sort of respiratory infection. After nearly 2 weeks of coughing I finally decided to go see a doctor. I think my co-workers appreciate this more than anyone. They are tired of listening to me cough up a long every five minutes. One even worked with his office door shut last week just so he didn't have to listen to me. But that is neither here nor there.

So I used my Friday off last week to go see a doctor and she agreed that this cough has been going on far to long. She listened to my back, everything sounded fine. Then she listened to my chest and was likely able to hear all sorts of fluid in there as I breathed in and out. It was decided that antibiotics would be needed.

I can't tell you the last time I have been on an antibiotic. I get a cold every 4-6 weeks throughout the colder months of the year (this is cold #1, there will probably be 4 to 5 more between now and spring) but I rarely (as in not in the last 10 years) get an bacterial infection or other serious illness.

So the doctor writes a perscription and I go on my way thankful that I will finally get some relief from all the coughing. So Friday night is pretty bad. I definitely started feeling worse before I felt better. I pretty much cancelled all my Saturday plans and stayed at home studying. Luckily, I started to feel better. Then Sunday, wouldn't you know it, I wake up with stomach pain. I think that maybe I am just really hungry so I go eat some breakfast. This does not help. I am in pain all day Sunday. My stomach was hurting pretty bad. I was up in Northern Kentucky for my brother in laws birthday and we decided that it was likely the antibiotic that was making my stomach hurt. I figured I would take the pill I was supposed to with my dinner on Sunday night and see how I felt on Monday. Monday I woke up, and again stomach pain. So I didn't take my medicine and instead called the doctor and asked for a different antibiotic.

All this to say, there are people in this world that die from things that a simple antibiotic would cure. I have access to health care, where I can get a doctors appointment 2 hours after I call in, pya $25, see a doctor, pay another $10, get a perscription and then pay an additional $10 to get a different perscription that doesn't make my tummy hurt. The $45 this cost me is more than many people in the world make in a month and to me its just extra money that I would have rather put into savings or used to pay off my house, no sacrifices had to be made so that I could feel better. It's just crazy to me how the things that we take for granted and wouldn't think twice about are a huge deal for people in other parts of the world. It blows my mind how ridiculously much I have and how little others have. I think I need to be reminded of this a lot. It helps me keep a reality check on my needs vs. wants.

In other news, I fell out of a tree last night. In another installment of things most people my age don't do, we had a photo scavenger hunt for young life last night. One thing on the list was to take a picture of the whole team up in a tree. I had no issues getting into the tree, thanks to my long limbs, however I thought I was only a couple feet off the ground and went to hop down and the fall was a lot longer than I expected. I landed on my back and rolled out of it, acting like that was what I meant to do. My back hurt a bit for the rest of the night.

On that note, happy Wednesday folks!