After several weeks of coughing (both Katrina and me), we were finally forced to explore the German medical system hereabouts. Katrina went to one of the only pediatricians in the area on Monday, who had a bright and cheery office with plenty of interesting toys. She was so intrigued with the examining room, she didn't want to leave. She's 41 inches tall now, and about 39 lbs. That's from the quick math Jon did in his head, as her weight was actually shown in kilograms and height in centimeters. The doc did a quick listen to her heart and prescribed antibiotics and expectorant. She has more energy this afternoon than she's had for a few days (though only intermittantly), so hopefully the meds have started to work.
Me, I've been through two doctors. I made an appointment with an internal medicine doc last week in Kaiserslautern, thinking that with my weird medical history, it might be better to have an internal medicine person than a GP. But I think this guy was more of a specialist than I expected, even though I asked the secretary on the phone if his was a general practice. Plus, 150 euros per visit?
Then he didn't think I had anything that needed antibiotics, even though I had been coughing for 3 weeks. He gave me cough suppressant and expectorant. This was last week. Nothing happened except the cough got worse, I got head congestion added back to the mix, and I started running a low-grade fever yesterday morning. I decided that maybe a family or general pratice doctor closer by might be better after all. So I called (and called and called...apparently not a lot of docs have voicemail) and was able to get in to a family practice doc yesterday afternoon.
He also listened to my breathing, heart, etc., and said I had a minor bronchial infection. (Minor?! I'm coughing up my lungs over here!) I suspect he was also influenced by my mentioning that my daughter had just been diagnosed with bronchitis. And, so I finally got the drugs that I thought I needed a week ago. He gave me free samples, no less! And, cost of office visit: 20 euros.
Since I've had a reaction in the past to a penicillin derivative, no one gives me amoxycillin or the like. No, I got the heavy-duty stuff: Cipro!
Took the first pill last night, but still coughing my head off. I'm hoping that I'll feel better by the weekend. It's been a month solid of one kind of illness or another. It would be nice to feel well again.
4 comments:
Good luck with the Cipro. Levaquin, the med I was RXd in the ER for the multiple infections I had is in the same family as Cipro; it made me feel sick the entire time I was on it.
No problem so far. I don't tend to react to medication the way you do. Of course, I'm still as sick as ever, so either it's not bacterial or the medication's just taking a few days to kick in.
I hope the antibiotics work! I get coughs that last for WEEKS that are not bacterial and thus don't respond to anitibiotics. I almost always take inhalers (like asthmatics use) anytime I get a cough because of this. If your cough doesn't go away, next time ask the doctor if they hear a wheeze when you exhale rapidly. If they do, then probably you need an inhaler to make it go away. I've got way too much experience with coughing in this house! :)
Hey, now there's two of us with coughing experience saying you'll need an inhaler (Carol, I told her the same thing - we should just hang our MD on our doors...) ;)
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