Socialized Medicine

My family travels quite a bit.

I was lucky enough to take my first overseas trip at 14 and I have never looked back.

This week Mom and the Dr.,Dr.,Dr. are in Exeter (that's in England Y'all) at some writers thing. They travel constantly and it is usually a writers conference or a French Medieval conference. It sounds boring and I'm sure some of it is but a lot of it is really cool. Plus one of the Dr., Dr., Dr.'s many books is dedicated to little old me :) which is really neat.

Well this morning I got a slightly alarming email, Mom has a fever. I know, it's just a fever but she's not young and she has not had a fever in years. When you get to a certain age a fever is nothing to play around with.
She says she's just going to go to Boots (its the English version of Walgreens) but seriously all they will do is throw some codeine at her. Yes, you can get codeine without a prescription, it is a truly civilized country. I say she needs to call a Doctor.

Now I am not going to get into a debate about socialized health care here, I'm just trying to make sure my Mom, who is in a foreign country and sick, feels better, ok.
The lovely thing about my mother being in the UK at this particular time is that they do have socialized health care and she can see a doctor without too much hassle (I SAID I did not want to hear it.......thank you)
For those of you who have never been ill in a socialist country allow me to explain.

I was very ill on a trip to Paris. I LOVE Paris, with all my heart and I was not about to spent the three precious days I had there with my head in le toilet. So I did what any "stoopid americiane" would do and asked the concierge to call a doctor. What, you thought I was backpacking or something, darlin I was on the black cards dime, I traveled in high style back in the day.

Within the hour a lovely young Physician was in my suite taking my vitals and various bodily samples. He determined that I had nothing more than a simple stomach bug and gave me some little green pills. He also had room service bring me a fizzy licorice flavored alcoholic beverage to calm my tummy. That's why I love the French, when in doubt, throw booze at it. Well it worked, I was fine the next morning and was able to enjoy the beautiful world that is Paris.
How much did this little house call cost me.......approx $30.00 including the little green pills!!!

I do hope my Mom has seen a Doctor today and I hope she feels better soon.
I don't know why, but when someone you love is ill away from home, it just seems worse.

Update: Mom has not gone to the Dr., still has a fever and now I can't sleep. She says she's going to grab something homeopathic..........for her fever!!