Fully sick, mate!

I might have mentioned in a few previous posts that i've been feeling under the weather (literally) lately. Well, just before I got my licence and the car that would have helped me avoid all this, there was this one evening where it started raining buckets in the middle of my way home from work on my bike. Turns out that this was no ordinary shower, but Typhoon No. 20, which chose that evening to hit my particular town. Apparently typhoons are so common here in Japan that they've given up on naming them ^^

Now I don't believe that being out in the rain causes colds. Blame it on my scientific background, which insists that colds and flu are caused by bacteria and viruses. So where did I catch my bug from? I dunno, but I reckon that the kids at my elementary schools who like to tug at my clothes and stuff, especially those kids with snot dripping out of their noses, might have something to do with it.

Anyway, over the next few days things got steadily worse, culminating in a fever, runny nose, persistent dry cough and a bout of semi-chronic laryngitis that forced me to stay home for at least one day. No point in going to classes if I can't speak, right? Ah, the irony of it all.

I didn't manage to see the doctor until about 5-6 days after my symptoms started due to work and generally feeling yucky, but when I did, service was swift and polite, as it generally is here. I was in and out of the clinic in under 30 minutes. Best thing was, due to my health insurance (mandatory for all full-time workers in Japan... for shame, NOVA!) the consult only cost me round about 1200 yen. Apparently the healthcare system here will subsidize two-thirds of all medical costs, so it's generally a good deal. It's not like bulk billing back in Australia, but with the advent of Medicare reforms (not happy, John), doctors who bulk bill are getting rarer anyway.

The subsidy extends to prescription medications as well, because I got antibiotics, painkillers, decongestants and even a throat gargle from the dispensary next door for under 900 yen. Not bad considering I used to have to pay shedloads for even simple stuff back in Australia, and bank on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for a shot at a paltry refund.

Service at the pharmacy was also top notch, and I've discovered that it extends to portioning out individual doses for the convenience of customers:

No chance of taking the wrong number of pills there. I love how each individual sachet also specifies when it should be taken, even though their contents are identical.

A major complaint I have however is the strength and composition of the medications here. The antibiotics I was given were tiny little capsules which didn't do very much to make me feel better. Back in Australia the package tells you to finish the course even if your symptoms go away. Over here you finish the course precisely because the symptoms *don't* go away. Now, what's the point of prescribing weak antibiotics when all they will do is kill off the weak bugs to leave more room for the stronger ones? Also, the meds here seem to be formulated with low concentrations of no less than 6 ingredients together at any one time, so in order to dose up enough to kill pain, you'd overdose on all the other stuff that's mixed in there. That's just plain silly in my books.

Maybe I'm being picky, or maybe it's the frustration at having gone through two and a half weeks of feeling crappy and still having a cough, running nose and a voice at 50%.

Lesson learned: forget the bike, take the car.

p.s.: Traditional cold remedies abound in Japan, and they include hot infusions of daikon (Japanese radish), a local fruit called karin (my dictionary defines it as quince), or probably the most effective one, sliced ginger root, all taken with honey. I might as well give them a try, since regular meds haven't helped. *shrug*