Dobleve

I had a heck of a cold for the last few weeks of December, I lost my voice for the better part of one week along with it.  As I was recovering I was reminded of how different some aspects of health care are here.  

For things like colds you just go to the pharmacy, the pharmacist can tell you what to take and give it to you.  In fact you must ask for what you want because all of the medicines are in the back of the store rather than on display for customers to choose.  They just sell medications and occasionally things like band-aids and heating pads but no where near the selection of things you would find in the typical pharmacy in the US.   There are pharmacies all over and they are all privately run, no one is allowed to have more than one pharmacy in a town.  The result of them all being small family-type affairs and the fact you need to ask for everything you need makes them a much more pleasant place to go IMO than a bigger store.  You get to build a personal relationship with the pharmacist if you want and always get knowledgeable and friendly service in my experience.

Medicines are different too, here they often come as a powder you dissolve in water or a tablet you put in water to dissolve (think Alka-Seltzer style) to take.  This includes things like ibuprofen as well as cold medicine, although you can often get the same thing in a pill form if you ask.  Medicines are also considerably cheaper here even if you pay retail price (eg not part of your health insurance).  Cold medicine for a week is about $6, 20 600mg ibuprofen tablets is $2, the allergy medicine Clarytine is $4 for 20 tablets, etc.  

We haven’t needed to go to visit a doctor’s office yet, the pharmacy has had all we’ve needed so far.