I just moved my mini-pharmacy from the kitchen back to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. I hope I didn’t jinx anything.
I really don’t know. But David Goldhill has some smart things to say in “How American Health Care Killed My Father” in the September 2009 issue of The Atlantic.
This is NOT what I had in mind.
Neither was this.
The good news? It’s not chicken pox. It’s a reaction to antibiotics she was taking for strep. So at least it’s not contagious, and we won’t be quarantined for Christmas. That is, as long as nothing else crops up between now and then. I mean, we still have a few days …
This is what happens when a little girl gets sick and she doesn’t take real naps anymore.
Still no photos, so here’s a lovely video for your viewing and listening pleasure. It’s the song that plays in my head whenever someone tells me they have “walking pneumonia.”
According to The Wall Street Journal today, the longer you stay well, the more it hurts companies’ bottom line. Shame on you.
Kimberly-Clark execs apparently had to use their tissues to wipe their own tears after a fourth-quarter drop in sales last year — all because you failed to get sick.
Companies were worried for a while, though, telling shareholders to do their part.
In January, Walgreen Co. CEO Jeffrey Rein told a shareholder gathering that December marked the first time in his 25-year career at the company that cough- and cold-medicine sales fell during the month. If attendees of the meeting needed to cough, he joked, they should leave the room and “go to a movie theater or on a bus” to spread their germs. “We’re really hoping for a very strong flu season,” Mr. Rein told the crowd, according to a transcript of his presentation.
Sweet, huh?
Procter & Gamble Co.said on a conference call in January that quarterly sales of its Vicks cold medicine had been weak. “Unfortunately, people have not been getting sick at a rate that we would all like yet,” P&G CEO A.G. Lafley said on the call, with a chuckle.
Yeah, that is pretty funny.
Hospitals also rode the roller coaster of this flu season. Sicker patients often bring higher reimbursement from insurers or the government, and the flu can cause pneumonia and other complications. “You have a strong flu season, and the ancillary business is very profitable,” David Dill, chief financial officer of LifePoint Hospitals Inc., explained to investors at a conference in January. If an elderly flu sufferer in intensive care needs a tracheotomy, “that turns into higher acuity business for us,” he said. “Or, on the pediatric side, young kids coming into the hospital, that’s a nice margin for us, as well.”
He’s talking about Grandma’s tracheotomy and Baby Jenny’s hospital stay. I bet Grandma would tell you how proud she is of helping that “nice margin,” but, well, she’s got that trach, you know …
“Of course 36,000 die from the flu every year, and more than 200,000 go to the hospital for it. The flu apparently accounts for $16.3 billion in lost earnings every year.”
Oops. How did that get in there?
Anyway. Here’s where you can find the article, “Flu Economy Takes Unexpected Turn.”
See that? That’s how much the Kristiansund Hospital in Norway wants for one overnight stay for my daughter in December. That’s NOK 9750,00 (Norwegian kroner) or about $1,780. That brings our running tab for this vacation to almost $14,000. For three weeks — and one day (thanks, Haris) — in Norway. Next time a Norwegian says they have “free” health care? Don’t believe it. I never have. Paying a 50-percent income tax rate when we lived in Norway was enough to make me believe that nothing is free.
So, dear Norwegian Consulate in Houston, can you help a mother out? (Or anyone? Please?) It apparently doesn’t matter that our daughter has dual citizenship, a Norwegian passport and a Norwegian identification number. I know she doesn’t live in Norway, but this was an emergency.
I suppose it wasn’t great timing for the hospital stay, considering all the news about Gro Harlem Brundtland at the time. Norwegians were all up in arms about her use of the Norwegian health-care system. She’s a former Norwegian prime minister. She’s also a physician and former head of the World Health Organization. (Sorta ironic, no?) She’s retired now and lives in France, and Norwegians weren’t about to let her get “free” health care that included a hip operation. Never mind that she probably paid up to half of her lifetime salary in taxes to pay for Norway’s “free” health care. And never mind that she’s one of those people Norway’s system is supposed to care for in its cradle-to-grave “safety net.”
…
*I meant this Guinness.
But a few of these wouldn’t hurt. (Although, who has money for beer? Sigh.)
P.S. The bill arrived today. I’m afraid to check my mail anymore.
I got sick during the first week of school two weeks ago. Everyone got sick. Then I started to feel better. Until Saturday. It was worse. I was sick all weekend. Then today. Much, much worse. Fever. Chills. And various nastiness. I swear, I’m ready for hospice. Is it this bad everywhere? Or is it just me?
Questions about visiting Washington, D.C.
If I miraculously rise from my death bed, however, I plan to visit our nation’s capital next month. Yes, when searching for “death bed,” one of the first results was Abraham Lincoln on his, which I have been reading about in Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation. Coincidence? I think not. She also talks a lot about Washington, D.C., which brings me to my questions.
I will attend a conference, and I’m not sure what to expect with weather, what I will need clothing-wise, what in the world I can pack in a suitcase anymore and such. Yes, I’m flying, which means I will probably miss the entire first day of the conference because of delays or cancellations.
Suitcase
What is a person allowed to pack in a checked suitcase anymore? Last time I flew, I only took a carry-on. I didn’t want to mess with having my nail clippers or shampoo swiped, so I took nothing of the sort. I just went to the nearest supermarket when I arrived at my destination. I doubt that will be possible in October. So … can I pack toothpaste, creams, lotions and various sharp objects in my checked luggage? (I had cuticle clippers swiped once, and it made me wonder if they thought I might stalk and tackle someone on the plane, hold them down and … clip their cuticles.)
Wardrobe
This will be the first time I will pretend to be professional in public in, well, a while. I will already be an outsider as a freelancer (not to mention, hiss, a blogger), and I will probably have that first-day-at-Kindergarten look with my new satchel for my laptop. Yes, satchel. I have bags. I want a satchel. So I don’t want to go overboard with a whole new wardrobe or anything. But I don’t want to seem completely out of it.
Shoes
My feet have become Floridated. No, they don’t consume fluoride. They just live in sandals day in and day out because they can, and they don’t do well in normal shoes. I only have shoes and socks for visiting other places, and I always get blisters on my feet whenever that happens. But, tell me, sandals in D.C. in October won’t fly. Will they?
Dress code
The dress code is “business casual.” What does that mean these days? Way back when I worked the mushroom shift (you know, after dark and through to the early-morning hours), there was only a two-hour gap when the day-shift folks would sneer at our ratty jeans and tennis shoes. After that, nobody cared what we looked like. So … what is business casual? Does it include clothing that most people would dry clean? Or just slacks that aren’t denim?
Weather
Is it cold there in October? (Anything 75 degrees or below would cause me to break out the winter stuff here.) Do I need a sweater? Jacket? Ear muffs and mittens?
What’s worse than putting my babies on a bigass school bus at 7:30 every morning, the whole transition thing, crying, no more naps? Having them home tomorrow. Sick. I think I’m getting sick too. Good times.
