Maxicare and some good phlegm-stopping stuff

Mr. Cough has been bothering me for exactly seven days now. I had to be absent from work because of him, and eventually had to go see a doctor to keep him from killing me.

Thanks to the accessible location of St. Luke's and its proximity to HSBC and Secret Recipes - we literally had a one-stop-shop on Wednesday afternoon. These three establishments are just a few steps away from each other.

Anyway, I also like the fact that Maxicare is very well established within St. Luke's, unlike other hospitals where they try, as much as possible to avoid Maxicare card holders. Maxicare has its own room at St. Luke's, specifically Room 325. (Manong guard was kind enough to tell us what to do.) I'm not sure whether the ease of going through a medical checkup here is just because it is a weekday afternoon, or their facility here is seldom used. All I had to do was hand my card to the lady at the reception, then fill out a form, and then wait till the resident physician called me.

After a few routine checks and all, she finally diagnosed me with having acute bronchitis. As per Wikipedia: Acute bronchitis is an inflammation of the large bronchi (medium-size airways) in the lungs that is usually caused by viruses or bacteria and may last several days or weeks.^[1] Characteristic symptoms include cough, sputum (phlegm) production, and shortness of breath and wheezing related to the obstruction of the inflamed airways. Diagnosis is by clinical examination and sometimes microbiological examination of the phlegm. Treatment for acute bronchitis is typically symptomatic. As viruses cause most cases of acute bronchitis, antibiotics should not be used unless microscopic examination of gram-stained sputum reveals large numbers of bacteria.

Of course I was scared! Bronchitis is not a term we all hear everyday. She told me it isn't that dangerous if I take my medication religiously, and most importantly, if I take complete rest. She gave me two sets of medication: antibiotics (Azithromycin Zithromax) and Ectrin Erdosteine. The latter I have to take once a day, while the other, as treament for the cough, twice a day. Both have to be taken after meals.

I have been feeling quite okay, in fact I felt a huge improvement. It isn't normal for me to react this way to medicines. They are usually ineffective for me, and so this latest discovery is a surprise.

Anyway, things learned from this: DO NOT SELF-MEDICATE, DO NOT IGNORE COUGH, DO NOT DRINK ICE COLD WATER AFTER AN ALL-NIGHT-LONG SESSION OF RHB (Red Horse Beer) and VIDEOKE. :-)