Not-medicating

I am still slogging around the house, barely making it to the crosswalk in the morning and then giving up for the rest of the day.  Yesterday I went back to my doctor to get more cold medicine.

My doctor and I have an interesting understanding or maybe it is a non-understanding.  I started going to him three or four years ago when I got annoyed with another doctor whom I'd been seeing and who wanted me to start on cholesterol medication.  I was not going to do it and he put this guilt trip on me saying it would be my own fault if I dropped dead from a heart attack.  That's when I found a new doctor.

Finding a new doctor is easy or not so easy (what is with all the qualifying phrases?)  You go down the street and find a doctor with a sign out in front that tells what he specializes in and you walk in and say you want to see the doctor.  Sometimes one can get a recommendation from a neighbor or a friend, but we all seem to go through various doctors trying to find one that we "like".  In my case, I chose the present doctor because 1) he isn't very busy meaning I don't have to wait long in a waiting room and 2) he lets me do what I want pertaining to my health.

My new doctor also told me that I should probably take cholesterol medication but when I said I was adamantly against the idea of medication and preferred to try changing my food habits, he shrugged and said he guessed I could try what I wanted for awhile.   My many times doing the Whole 30 diet (I think I've done it 5 times now) has helped my cholesterol issues but not completely...

When thinking out the Whole 30 deal I read about the benefits of fish oil and I bought a bottle of capsules when I was in the States.  My doctor here agreed that fish oil was beneficial but that I'd do much better to use a concentrated version that was covered by Japanese insurance and he prescribed something for me.

"As long as it is not medication."

"It is not medication.  Think of it as a supplement."

So I started taking the "supplement" though when I pick it up at the pharmacy they tell me my medication is ready.

"It is NOT medication!"

"Ah yes...  Well, it is ready."

An aside here about the pharmacy.  For most of my life in Japan, the doctor's office handed over medicine when I paid my bill at the reception desk.  It seems that besides the doctor and the nurses there was always a pharmacist hired.  But a couple of years ago the laws changed in Japan (I guess) and pharmacies had to be separate from the doctor's office, so now there are all these little pharmacies NEXT to the doctor's office sometimes with a gate in the fence between them and now I walk a few feet away to the pharmacy.  I think it must have cost billions and billions of yen to put in this system of separate pharmacies, but it only means a few extra steps for the patient...  Probably the only patients to go to these mini pharmacies are the next door's doctor's patients anyway.

A few months ago I noticed a wart on my finger, and then another one and so I consulted my doctor who has put these patches on both places and prescribed a "non-medication" for skin care.

"It is an herbal tablet...  NOT medication.  You could buy it in the supermarket if you like but it will be cheaper with your insurance.  It will take awhile to be effective however."

Okay...   So on top of my fish oil gels I've been taking 6 tablets of whatever it is for wart removal.

And then I caught this cold, so I went back to my doctor.

"Yes, well.  So this means that you WILL take medication for a cold?"

In my mind, symptom care and long term medicating are different things.

"Yes please.  I've been miserable."

"Okay... So you'll need this and that... and how about Kampo medicine.  Will you take Kampo medicine?"

Kampo is rather hard to explain also as I don't understand it myself, but it is considered Chinese herbal medicine and is made of different combinations of herbs.  That is misleading however because Kampo comes in little foil packages that look nothing like some old Chinese sage has weighed out herbs for a patient.  They are aseptically numbered and packaged and are handed over at the pharmacy with all the other medications...

So I went next door to the pharmacy and got 7 days worth of two different tablets, patches for easier breathing, Kampo packages and cough syrup and a fever reliever (if I should get a fever, which I don't have).  AND more of my wart "non-medicine" as the doctor said I should be out of it by now (I'm not....  I only take my wart non-medication and fish oil gels when they happen to catch my eye...  They are in my kitchen cupboard.)

Another aside.  Notice all these medications and non-medications are handed over in a paper bag and none of them are child-proof.  I've never seen child-proof packaging and I'm pretty sure it is not because the pharmacist knows there aren't any children in my house.  This is how we get our medications.

And one more aside.  I remembered to bring my medication booklet which has a stickered history of all the medications I've been given since the booklet system started.  For someone who is not taking medication, my medication booklet is rather filled up with stickers.  Patients need to remember to take their booklet with them to whatever doctor or pharmacist they visit so that no matter who sees the patient, all the important people know how the patient tolerates certain medications.  I've only had this work to my advantage (and it was a big advantage!) once, when I had an allergic reaction that I reported and now all the doctors know not to give me whatever it was that caused the reaction (I sure don't know.)

I came home with all this pharmacy stuff yesterday.  I think I paid about $16.  Do you think my doctor is humoring me about my non-medication preferences?