I miss my puffs

I have been ill for ages. It’s quite inconvenient. It has been quite educational about the French health care system and how different cultures feel about illnesses.

It all started with a sore throat. Followed by a night locked out of my apartment in the rain. This means I went from occasionally coughing to having no voice in one night. I still felt like it was ok. I felt fine, I just couldn’t really speak. This is about when my roommates started freaking out.

As it turns out, countries that have free health care use it! Countries that pay for health care don’t (until they’re dying on the side of the street of course) I keep the attitude of “I’m fine! Sure you can’t hear me attempting to speak and I have a 20 minutes coughing fit every 30 minutes, but I’m fine!” Sure I was taking some Nyquil that I brought with me, but nothing drastic.

Finally, I get sick of coughing so often, and my roommates harass me enough to go to the doctors. I attempt to try and find one, but fail. While wandering around I manage to find a pharmacist. We have a nice conversation and I get 3 different kinds of medications for 13 euros. Not bad! And it was so simple (minus the fact I couldn’t just go to a super market like I would in the states…..)

I try the drugs for a few days. My throat no longer hurts! How thrilling! Oh wait… as I later said “J’ai beaucoup de mucus” Time to visit the doctor’s office….

Finding doctor’s offices in France is quite challenging. They are just located in simple apartment just labeled with gold placards out front. But if you don’t know what you’re looking for it’s quite challenging. So I find the building, wait for it to open, press a button, that fails to open the door, press a new button get let in, sit in a waiting room for a bit only to realize that it’s in fact a dentist’s waiting room, cross the hall and sit completely silently with a few other people. They are slowly called into the room and never come out again…..it’s not looking promising.

I get called into the room. It’s just a normal office, I thought the lady was actually a secretary until I saw an examination table sitting there. She asked me if I had my card (no…I’m American…), student? (yes) BEM? (oh yeah, we’re all sick as dogs right now, I’m sure she’s seen a lot of us) she asked me a few questions, listened to me breath and cough (she didn’t wash her hands btw); she gave me three prescriptions, and note for class and sent me on my way. I paid 22 euros. That’s cheaper than many people’s co-pays! And I can get that money reimbursed! (Once I figure out how to fill out the paper work…)

Pop over to another pharmacy and get my harder core drugs. (I can get the cost of those reimbursed too!)

That being said, I’m STILL sick. Sure, it’s really easy to get drugs in France. REALLY easy. I hear that France is actually one of the most over medicated countries in the world. There are positive and negative sides to free health care. Sure, EVERYONE gets the help they need. Many people get more than they need. Some people aren’t properly diagnosed. I think I would be in the same place I am right now if I wasn’t taking medication…but I guess I’ll never know.