06 April 2011

Ventures in foreign medicine

This week I came down with a cold - or what people here call "flu". Not "the flu", just "flu". I have flu. You can blame it on the fan, you can blame it on the cooler weather, you can blame it on spending too much time with Amon or any of the other numerous choir members who has it right now, but regardless of how I got it, I have it and now have to deal with it.

If you've ever looked in the pharmaceutical aisle in a foreign country before, you'll know what I mean when I say it's overwhelming. Even the ones in the U.S. can be overwhelming at times. But just think: a whole aisle of pharmaceuticals, but you aren't familiar with any of them at all! That's why I chose to go to Choppies to look for something instead of one of the big grocery stores: less selection means less labels to read before I figure out what I'm looking for.

After about ten minutes of pondering over labels and boxes, I ended up settling for Vicks Acta Pluss Cough Syrup with its "Triple Action Relief" that "soothes throat", "fights dry cough", and "relieves chesty cough". Pretty sure I have all three of those in various degrees. The price was right: 100mL for about P26, or roughly $4. Okay, so it was pricey, but isn't that always the case? I took it home, opened it up, and filled the lid (I don't actually know how much the 10mL dose is, but I'm guessing the lid was probably 5mL), and connected my taste buds with some of the most terrible-tasting gobbledy-gook I have ever put on them in my entire life. Needless to say, I didn't bother taking another capful. I'm not one for taking full dosages anyway. But at least it did feel really good going down. However...

I should have bought the 50mL bottle.

2 comments:

  1. poor little girl, remember "just a spoonfull of sugar make the medicine go down..." :)

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  2. Oh no! Feel better!!!!

    ReplyDelete