Money, food, and TV... it must be north america

[eveglass]

Two brief messages before the "what I did today" part of the post:

1. Happy birthday, Joane! (I hope I got the day right!)
2. Happy Happy Things Day, everyone!


I finally decided to do what my doctor tells me, at least for the next two weeks. I'm speaking specifically of Pulmicort, a cortiosteriod my doctor keeps telling me to take as a preventative measure for my asthma. Given that I've lost all my tolerances to cats over the last three months and that I am almost certainly going to be around them at some point, I've decided to try this preventative method. Now, my old Pulmicort inhaler expired in April, and I know better than to take expired medication, so I went to renew the perscription today.

First of all, understand that I'm supposed to be taking four puffs of this a day -- two puffs, twice a day. Also understand that each inhaler contains 200 doses. So, by quick calculation, this means each inhaler will last 50 days, and if I were to take this continually, all year, I would therefore need seven or eight of them per year.

So, with all this in mind, how much do you think it cost? C'mon, guess. The winner is... $84! That's $600 a year if I were taking this every day, all year. And that's not even counting the inhaler I use when I actually get attacks, the one that keeps me breathing! Ouch!

So now the bad points of this medication are: 1. takes 7-10 days to work, meaning that if I start taking it when I have an attack, I'm over the attack before the Pulmicort starts working. 2. it's unnecessary drugs in my system, replete with potential side-effects. 3. it's expensive! Yeah... not happy about this. I'll keep taking it until I go back to Toronto, but I haven't decided about what I'll do when I come back to Montreal afterwards.


In other news, Ian came over and cooked me tasty dinner, full of lamb, onions, and bell peppers. Then we watched a TV show called Numb3rs, which is essentially a law enforcement show (think CSI or Law and Order) with the added twist of having mathematicians help solve the cases. Surprisingly, it was pretty good. I'd forgotten what a drain TV is, though. Very happy I don't have it in Toronto -- I'd never get anything done.

And that's it for tonight. G'night all.

Comments

[mediaevalrose.livejournal.com]

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Numb3rs
It's my FAVORITE SHOW!
I HATE Law and Order
not sure about CSI....
but Numb3rs SOOOO GOOOOOODDDDD
ah, Charlie Eppes...

[ryss-rhiannon.livejournal.com]

I take it that the cost of the inhaler is with out insurance? Perhaps that is something you could look into if you really want to keep breathing easy.

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

It's covered under my mom's insurance, I believe. But still... $84!

[ryss-rhiannon.livejournal.com]

Too much.