Wow! A month has just flown by!
Continuing saga of culture shocks in America....
Well! Can it be that a month has gone by
since my last blog? I must have been having fun...
I was amazed when a colleague remarked how
she had timed her graduation and her starting date at P&G to the day of when
her university health insurance ran out. One of her relatives is going to
have to stay in college and take classes during his last semester even though
he had enough credits to graduate, just to stretch the period of time he
remained covered by the university health insurance. I mean, there has to be
more to life than health insurance! Having said all that, I had my first
encounter with the American Health System - sorry, rephrase that - the
American health market (system implies planning, like that of the National
Health System in the UK...) today. I had picked this doctor's name off the
website of my insurer. I called, and introduced myself, after making all the
polite enquiries about the persons health and well-being (i.e., how are you
today? Great day isn't it?) Once I said I was looking for a doctor, I was
just cut off with two questions, "Do you have insurance? Who is your
insurer?" Then I was slotted into a slot. Boy, if I had said no card, I
suspect the wonderful enquiries about by health and well-being would have been
terminated. Anyway. Got to see the doctor, and after a long while chatting
and giving a presentation of my state of health, the state of health my
parents, my siblings, my grandparents, my surgery treatments, and my regular
drug habits (calm down - just my antihistamines and decongestants), he stopped
me to say, "If you hadn't just mentioned that your father was a doctor, I was
about to ask you how you were so familiar with medical vocabulary. You know
enough to be dangerous!" I wondered what he meant by that, and let it slide
with a "But to whom?" and moved on. I must admit, my work colleague was
hooting with laughter when I recounted this to her, and I suppose I hadn't
seen it the way she had: to paraphrase her, "What do you think he was
thinking about - he's sitting in front of an attorney who had no reason to
know medical vocabulary, unless..." Well, I suppose if I were a negligence
litigator, he would be just that much more careful, wouldn't he?
Anyway. I digress. I don't know how much
the consultation cost. I suspect it will cost a lot: ECG ("need baseline
measure"), bacteria culture from my wound, 1 hour consultation.... However,
my shock today came at the pharmacy. I really didn't know why the pharmacist
kept insisting she was going to ring my insurer for me: these weren't drugs I
hadn't taken before, and they were not spectacularly special. I mean - Zyrtec
for my allergies, ciprofloxacin as an antibiotic. The pharmacist said I'd
have to pay first, and reclaim the cost from the insurer - again, that's
pretty normal. Then they rang up the bill. A 10 day course of
Ciprofloxacin cost me USD137, and a 30 day course of cetirizine cost me
USD82. By the grace of God, I am someone who can drop the USD220 without
batting an eyelid, but there are loads of people for whom that is not
possible.... I really wonder now how people can live with this! I've
heard the argument here that the reason why drugs in Canada are cheaper is
that the prices are controlled by the government, but if everyone were to
control prices, the pharmaceuticals (who by the way are the most profitable
companies around) would stop being in business. Well, drug prices are not
controlled in Singapore. There I pay USD0.50 for a tablet of Zyrtec - which
makes the 30 day supply only USD15.00 Ciprofloxacin is expensive: a 10 day
course costs me .... USD75. Go figure. Oh by the way, President Bush signed
into law a provision that prohibits the government from negotiating drug
prices with the pharmaceutical companies...
Okay. When I took up this assignment, I
joked that this was going to be a career-narrowing, physically broadening,
financially depleting, life threatening assignment. So far, the career bit
is true: my scope of work has really shrunk, although the dollar amounts in my
purview have gone way up. Life - threatening? Well, the crime rate here is
3 times the US national average, but so far so good. The office however,
thinks the bad air quality will do me in. Now - the physically broadening
just isn't happening. I think the fact that I don't like the local diet has
helped: unfortunately since my arrival I have lost 2 kilos - 4.4 pounds.
That's one trouser size down. Yuck. Well... okay I have to eat my own
cooking for dinner, but it's more the lunch that is killing me: it's really
awful. There have been weeks when all I have had is a ham sandwich on white
bread. Unfortunately, I've ham-sandwiched out, so I really have to do
something about this. And I suppose the fact that I can't exactly go
downstairs to snack the way I could in Singapore is contributing to this.
Maybe I'll just have to cook both lunch and dinner: home is only 10 minutes
away. Of course, mentioning that I've lost 4 pounds only gets me dagger-eyes
from the office colleagues..
Apart from that, I suppose I need to say that
I've gotten my new car. Well, sort of 3 week old car by now. I'll put a
picture or two up online...Taken before the dirt and grime took hold. Will be
taking my driving test in two weeks time. Hope I pass! Just want to get it
out of the way.
In the meantime, I've been taking time
arranging stuff, buying more furniture, and getting rid of books. Church is
having a Rummage Sale - I call it a Jumble Sale, but everyone in church thinks
I speak funny anyway. So I am getting rid of some of the books. I can't
believe that I have so much stuff, but even after delivering 2 boxes to
church, I still have so much stuff to deal with. Urrggh. But, it has been
occupying my time, and keeping me out of mischief. And out of boredom: most
people can't believe I haven't arrange to get out of Cincinnati, even if for a
weekend. I have issues in Canada I could go up for, but at the moment, I
think I'll stick it out here until I really cannot take it any more.. I've put
some snapshots of the flat on line, but without a wide-angled lens, you really
can't see much of the place. Still, I am still trying my best to get break-up
those wonderful walls - all uniformly painted with "Builder's Beige". Then
again, I do have a lot of furniture of that colour to match! Still - I now
have my own room, my study/spare room, which is still waiting for the sofa bed
to turn up from IKEA, and a third room, which was described as "the Study" on
the management plans. I don't know about them, but I really don't like
spending long hours in a room with no natural light! So I've put the massage
bed in there, and will use that as the massage room. So far so good. I'm
ready to declare the flat done, and that means, I'll have to find other things
to do with my time. I'm sure I will.. .
I realised while re-arranging my books that I
have a large number of books to catch up with: a situation that only arose in
Singapore, when my reading slowed. So I really shouldn't be buying new stuff
for a while... he says. On the social side, been out for dinners with Howard,
Brad, and a friend of their's, Dr Ted, and ophthalmologist. The thing about
Ted was that he was actually excited about my Subaru... I couldn't believe it
- another someone who liked Subaru's. He was disappointed that I didn't go
for the 5 speed manual... thankfully I had support for my idea that I really
didn't need to give my left leg a workout while driving in town.
Still, this time has meant that I do have
time to spend doing some long neglected studies. You know it's been long
neglected when the college sends you a note asking if you are still
there.... And decided to have a sniff around aromatherapy. Just to see what
the smells brigade is all about. Having said that, will I be able to smell
anything with my congested nose??? Well.. We'll see how it goes. In the
meantime, my best wishes to everyone. The weather is warming up, but as it is
still March, we have been told to expect sharp drops in temperature at least
until May. But while I have the weather, I will be thankful and enjoy it!
Bye for now...
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Darren N T Koh,
Dip Anatomy, Physiology & Massage (ITEC), BCMA (Indp), ABMP (Practitioner)
224 East 8th St Apt 204, Cincinnati
OH45202-2124; United States of America
Telephone: +1 (513) 721 0801
Fax/voicemail: +1 (646) 514 6327 Mobile: +1 (513) 293 9348
Homepage:
www.oocities.org/dazzakoh
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Amended on:
Sunday August 01, 2004
