Wednesday 14 May 2008

Iron

What I love about this photo is that I wanted to take a picture of the Warbler on the top of the pine tree, and have accidentally captured a spec, an eagle flying overhead.

For the first time in Canada I had a prescription filled today.
My doctor was shocked last week, to find that my haemoglobin was very low. I was shocked to find that my cholesterol was normal. I have been anaemic my whole adult life, so it seemed normal to me. But she gave me a prescription for iron.

In Britain, there is a set prescription charge, so that if you get a prescription for something you can buy over the counter at the chemist's, the pharmacist or your doctor may advise you to just buy it if it is cheaper than the prescription charge.
This kinda happens here. But not quite. Instead of a prescription charge, there is a cost of the drug, plus a dispensing fee. But many people have medical plans through their employers that means they don't have to pay for most drugs. So....I could have paid $11 PLUS TAX for the iron over the counter, or $17 to have the prescription filled and Kevin's company's medical plan will pay for it. There is, of course, no option to pay the $11 PLUS TAX and have the medical plan pay that. So somewhere, someone is being fleeced and ultimately, that's going to be the consumer. Hrmph.

Following seamlessly on from drugs... how is it that Britney Spears can be so fecking awful in 'How I Met Your Mother' and George Michael so good in 'Eli Stone'?
I think we should be told.

Today, Alex Y and I set out to catch a frog. We had a big net and a pond literally popping with frogs. Did we catch a single one? Did we 'eck as like. Every time we even put a hand on that net, the little froggies plopped back into the pond and disappeared. And they seemed to know. Oh we learnt, just not how to catch frogs, more .... that we were rubbish at it.

Here in BC, a Kenyan student went out to post a letter and a helicopter fell out of the sky and killed him. That's for real. Sounds like a sketch on a black comedy show, but it actually happened.

And the Province is rightly scandalised. A serial killer of children, has a 'MySpace' page. It shows pictures taken inside the prison, inside his cell.
Sick.

4 comments:

Sleepy said...

The Myspace thing is awful.
Over here Jonathan King is doing something similar.

Nasty Nonces.

Schneewittchen said...

Eeeuw. How vile.

Anonymous said...

a prescription for iron? that's weird, i always have gotten mine over the counter.
What was your ferritin level if I may ask. I'm now taking iron citrate, which is supposedly easier on the stomach.
- Karen

Schneewittchen said...

I have no idea what the level was, she didn't tell me and I didn't ask or care very much.
She wanted me to take a particular iron, I think it is called ferrous glucinate, which both she and the pharmacist also said was easier on the stomach, but to be honest, the only prob I've ever had with iron has been that it binds you up a bit. And of course your poo goes black but meh, who cares?
Like I said, Kevin's insurance pays for prescriptions, although it didn't seem very dear anyway to buy over the counter.