Well, looks like my annual bronchitis is here again. Normally, I’d just call up my doctor, tell him I’ve got it again, and get it cleared up right away.
Unfortunately, I don’t have: a) a regular paycheck, or b) insurance right now.
Fuck.
Oh, and for an added bonus, I don’t have a working vehicle right now… so I get to ride my bike to work! Yay me!
Sorry, just wanted to bitch and feel sorry for myself. sigh
Lightnin’, I feel for you man. I’ve been sick for the last week, and as a result I’ve been out of work for several days, my kids have been suffering for it, and my house is a damn mess.
I’m getting better, albeit slooowly. I hope that you get better soon, and that everything else gets better along with it.
You got an old loaf of bread laying around? Make your own antibiotics! Get the kids involved, it’s fun for the whole family!
Run a hot bath and eat chocolate, Lightnin’. That’s all the advice I can give, but I really do feel your pain.
Do you know your doctor well enough to avoid the visit? Can he just call in a prescription for you? My doc will do this for me, mainly because I have a couple of things tha just flare up and he knows me well enough to trust me and just call in the antibiotics or prescriptions for me.
Sorry you’re sick:(. Feel better.
Ava
Been there, Lightnin’. The only thing that sucks more than being sick is being sick when you can’t freakin’ afford it.
I’m so sorry! Hoping you feel better soon!
Sorry you’re sick. I’ve got bronchitis right now, too, which is just starting to clear up, and it sucks. It would be ten times worse, though, without the drugs or the ability to see the doctor to make sure it wasn’t something even worse.
(My doc did give me a free sample of an inhaled steroid, though, which at least cut down on the drug cost for this illness. The terrifying part: I was bitching about the third-tier $25 copay for the specific antibiotic he prescribed, but the full retail price at Walgreen’s is $107.99. For TEN PILLS! I can’t imagine how uninsured people deal with that.)
This really intrigues me: does no job and/or no insurance really mean that you are denied access to any medical treatment? Is there no safety-net available at all?
I just don’t understand the US medical system. 
kambuckta, no, it’s not the case that one is denied access to healthcare if they don’t have a job or insurance.
The OP will simply have to pay to visit the doctor, and the OP is indicating that he doesn’t have a lot of money right now, so paying for it herself (instead of having insurance pay it) is going to suck.
Oh, I understand THAT TaxGuy, but here in Australia if you are unemployed or have a low income for other reasons, you are entitled to what is called a Health Care Card. This allows you to see a doctor or attend a public hospital without any ‘out of pocket expenses’ and to get (most) medications for a minimal cost (around $4-5).
It certainly isn’t a perfect system, but it does mean that if ANYONE is sick they can get appropriate treatment regardless of their ability to pay.
OH. Well we have that, too, it’s called Medicaid (and Medicare is for old folks).
So, who qualifies for Medicaid?
Man, that situation really sucks. A few weeks ago, I had a much smaller-scale situation go on with me. I too became ill, but couldn’t afford to take time off work because I’m currently paying off a loan and summer is already a hard time for me financially. So what did I do? Sleep.
When I wasn’t working I was sleeping or eating soup. I actually recovered fairly quickly and after 3 or 4 days I was totally fine. If you can’t get medical attention, my advice would be to do everything you can to help fight the bug in your spare time.
Actually, the safety net in the U.S. is rather thin in places. The hardest hit are the lower and the middle class, i.e., the working poor, who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but often don’t get health insurance because their jobs don’t provide it. (Frex, a lot of employers have taken to hiring employees to work 31-hour weeks so they don’t qualify as full-time workers and hence don’t get health insurance. Or they hire temps of contract workers who don’t get health insurance. Some temp agencies offer health insruance, but you generally have to have worked for them for a time to get it, and it sucks if you do get it.)
Anybody can go to certain emergency rooms for treatment if they are really sick even if they don’t have any money. But you don’t go unless you are REALLY sick. For many working poor, what you do when you have a minor illness is suffer through it without any medical aid other than whatever OTC drugs you can get.
If you get REALLY sick here in the US, you will be taken care of by Medicaid. However, it would be really nice if you didn’t have to get deathly ill in order to get help. But that is another topic.
Hon, this may not help, but then again it MAY help, so please at least try it. Boil some water and then run water from the tap as hot as you can get it. Put a few teaspoons of Vicks VapoRub[sup]TM[/sup] in a basin (or the sink, if you have a good stopper in your sink) with the tap water and add some of the boiling water to it…you don’t want to add enough to burn your nostrils as you breathe it in, but you want it as hot as possible. Then, bend over the basin/sink and drape a towel over your head to form a tent. Breathe the steam in as long as you can and do this as OFTEN as you can. Breathe in through both your nose and your mouth. As deeply into your lungs as you can.
Then take some Nyquil[sup]TM[/sup] and go to bed. I don’t think the Nyquil really does anything much to cure you, but it DOES knock you out so your body can heal it’s OWNSELF.
If possible, when you wake up? Repeat.
I have gotten through this kind of illness with this “folk remedy” many times. If it is a bacterial infection it won’t cure anything and you will still eventually need antibiotics…but even then it will make it easier to deal with while you are trying to avoid the Doc.
Sending you prayers for health.
My Love,
Cheri