Hospital

I had several people nagging me to go to the doctor to get my 3-week old cough checked out. Monday I went to the hospital that I've been told most of the - uh - undocumented residents go for their health problems. I was one of very few native English speakers. Lots of Latino, Brazilian, and Armenian.

I now have an application in for MassHealth FreeCare. I need to go back with my birth certificate. My friends told me AFTER the fact that I should have brought my passport along. (What US citizen ever thinks of needing that to go somewhere here in the US?) I have to go back anyway for them to "read" the tuberculosis skin test. Since I was overseas, they figured they should double check. So far, it looks every so slightly bruised, and that's all, so I think that's a negative. I hear positives are blatantly obvious!

But the doctor listened to my symptoms and said it sounded exactly like Mycoplasma Pneumonia, and gave me an antibiotic prescription, stronger than the penicillin I had for the strep. I should be feeling well again by Thursday she said.

And I got home that afternoon to find the bill from the Melbourne ER in my mail. After exchange rates are taken into account, it should be all of about $75. The one here would be way more than that if I end up having to pay for it.