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Friday, July 02, 2004
Shady Medic
I've been suffering from quite the nasty respiratory tract infection this week. Snot up to my eyeballs? Check. Nose runny like a broken faucet? Check. Wheezing, hacking cough like a lung cancer outpatient? Check. Finally, at the urging of several coworkers who were avoiding me like the plague, I went to a walk-in Medicentre. Five minutes later, I had been "diagnosed" and sent on my way with a prescription for some antibiotics. In this day of antibiotic prophylaxis, one would think that our physicians would be more careful in distinguishing a viral from bacterial infection before prescribing antibiotics. With the threat of new antibiotic resistant bacteria ("superbugs") cropping up almost daily, I had expected this particular doctor to do more than ask "What's up? Coughing? No fever? Okay, I'll prescribe you some zithromax(antibiotics). See ya later."
So naturally I was disappointed with the whole experience. This was made even harder to accept when I got my prescription from the pharmacy. Instead of getting me some generic azithromycin, he had prescribed me Pfizer brand Zithromax azithromycin. The drugs cost me more than they should have, and they may or may not be effective because the doc was too lazy to do a more comprehensive diagnosis (ie: detailed symptomology, nasal or throat observation/ swab). I have come up with three explanations for what happened to me today: 1) The doctor is a lazy shit, 2) The doctor is incompetent and that's why he works at a walk-in Medicentre, where clients are often transients, or 3) The doctor gets bonuses for prescribing pfizer drugs (physicians in the US get incentives from drug reps to prescribe certain brands over others, however, I'm not sure if they're allowed to do that here yet...)
Moral of the story is 1) Don't get sick, and 2) Not all doctors are created equal.
Currently listening to: Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Monday, June 28, 2004
Campaigning & Camping
As expected, the Marxist Leninist candidate didn't win. Too bad.
Our camping trip this weekend was pretty good. It rained on us pretty hard on Friday, but the rest of the weekend was nice. We got to frolick in a river, climbed a mountain, got lost in the forest on our way down, did some fishing (good thing we didn't buy an extra fishing license cause we caught dick all), and participated in a group orgy in Megan's huge tent. Sadly, no pictures of that were taken.
More pictures in here.
Currently suffering from: Nasty summer cold
ML???
It's nowhere near official yet, but right now, the Marxist-Leninist candidate is leading by a large margin in the Mississauga east riding. Awesome. Back with a real post later.
Currently watching: Election 2004