Recovering

Reason number 1001 why there should be no pets in the house:

Wednesday afternoon, around 16h30, I went back to the hospital because Robb had been told he was definitely scheduled for release. We were still there at 18h00 when they brought dinner around. He wasn't going to eat, but I suggested he might as well. That reminds me of an interesting thing that happened during Greg's last meal there. They brought in his lunch, but they had given him whole milk which he doesn't drink. He asked for skimmed milk and the woman said it would not be a problem, then promptly forgot it. But Greg had asked her to take back the whole milk and she told him she couldn't do that. Once she puts it in a room, she can't take it back, even though it had never been opened. That was only one example of the runaway waste I saw while I was visiting. And we wonder why it costs so much for medical care. Hospitals (and doctors) are just as bad, if not worse, than the government when it comes to wasting our money.

The good news is we finally got out and drove home around 19h30. We stopped at the drugstore, but when I told Robb it would be a twenty-five minute wait, he asked me to drive him home. I did that, and then went back to get the drugs. Wow, talk about getting ripped off. He got three drugs, two antibiotics and a pain killer (Percoset). It was over two hundred and fifty dollars. It's a good thing we don't need socialized medicine in this "greatest country in the world".

A friend who has a house in the Loire Valley of France, posted the following in his blog. I thought it was interesting enough to share. "A friend from Blois called last night just to say hello and see how we were doing. She said the school buses around Blois haven't been running this week, so all the kids are staying at home. Teachers are posting lessons for them over the Internet to keep them busy and productive. That's the 21st century, I guess." 

I don't know how many of you may have watched those really stupid drug commercials, but I love them. I'm referring to the ones that always have a disclaimer at the end in which they more often than not, indicate that their drug's side-effects are far worse than the reason you're taking them. They always have a section near the end during which they tell you to tell your doctor about various things. My absolute most favorite of these is the one for Plavix, in which they tell you to tell your doctor if you're planning any surgery.

As if we didn't have enough about which to worry, here's another:

Hasta la próxima, amigos.