Meine Krankenschwester

Which means, my nurse.

One difference between being a sick boy in Vienna and OKC is that here, the pharmacies have a wide variety of medicinal teas and homeopathic remedies, as well as the usual grab bag of pharmaceuticals.

B ran down to the pharmacy yesterday and came back with different teas and drops. One of the teas is supposed to encourage a rise in body temperature, to help burn off the virus. Sure enough, I spent a lot of yesterday in bed, sweating heavily after drinking this tea.

Then there are the different drops. One is to help with a cough. Ten drops on the tongue, swish it around on your gums for a few seconds, then down the hatch. Another kind of drop is for flu in general.

Plus, there were a couple of tiny pills for congestion. Every couple of hours you put these under your tongue and let them slowly dissolve.

This has been the regimen, with B keeping track of which drops when, which tea when, etc. The only allopathic medicine I've had were a couple of aspirins when my headache got to be a bit too much. I've also been drinking enough fluids to float an aircraft carrier.

I find it interesting that the pharmacists here don't poo-poo the idea of herbal or homeopathic remedies, but offer them side by side with the usual pills and liquids.

I got sick the last time B visited the states. She went to CVS looking for some of these teas and came back outraged at the "shit" they offer there. She told me the girl behind the counter looked at her as if she were insane when she asked for the "medicinal-quality teas." Whereas here, they do a lot of quality checking, etc. on their teas to make sure the potency is right.

Well. I'm feeling better. Maybe I would have anyway, without the teas and the drops and the pills you put under your tongue. And maybe it was mostly the fact that someone cared enough to see me through a little illness.