Cold

I caught a cold, and it turned into pneumonia. I went to my new, young doctor. He took some tests and confirmed the diagnosis. He asked me what I wanted. “Funny,” I thought. “Ok, I need some cough medicine that will knock me out for a couple of days.” He concurred. He said that an antibiotic would help. Did that sound reasonable to me? he asked. “Do I have a say in this?” I asked. “Yes,” he said. “Ok, then, give me an antibiotic.” He wrote out the prescriptions, and I went to have them filled at our neighborhood pharmacy. When the pharmacist gave me the cough medicine, it was a child sized bottle, only half full. It said to take five milligrams every four to six hours. I had no idea what five milligrams was. I googled “five milligrams”. Wiki couldn’t tell me. So I just swigged it from the bottle directly. Three down, it was all gone. I felt like calling the doctor and telling him I was an adult. I needed bigger bottles with better tasting syrup with bigger shots. “Doctor, you have to step up to the plate. I’m not used to being treated like a child.” To make things worse, there were only six pills in the antibiotic pack. I was to take two immediately, and one each day after that. I guess I was ok with that, but six pills were not what I’m used to. I usually get a bottle of fifteen to twenty tablets of anything I take. It was a Monday when I bought the medicine. Tuesday I wasn’t any better. Wednesday I wasn’t better. I decided I would call the doctor Thursday morning. Thursday morning I got up, and my cough was gone. My energy was back, I walked up and down the stairs without getting winded. I didn’t call the doctor. What would I say? You didn’t give me enough medicine? What if he asked, “how are you feeling?” I would have to say, “I think I’m over the pneumonia.” I’m still confused on the milligrams. I’ve looked on baby charts and I think 5 milligram is like one teaspoon. If he asks me again, I’m going to say, “give me an adult bottle where I can get ten to twelve swigs out of it. And make sure it tastes good. And no teaspoons please. Teaspoons are for the littles. And don’t use words like milligrams.”