This morning I finally had enough. After several bouts of coughing spells last night during which I could hardly catch my breath, my whole chest was SORE and my diaphragm especially so. It even hurt to just breathe. The cold was definitely winning.

So, I made my way down to an urgent care center to see someone about a prescription for something that would stop the cough. After filling out three pages of medical history I then went into an examination room where a nurse took my vital signs. The machine to take blood pressure was not going to succeed, so she did it the old fashioned way and came up with a blood pressure of 210 over 142. Not good! She immediately went to get the Physician’s Assistant who was seeing patients. He came in and took my blood pressure in my right arm. A little better: 160 over 108. We went through the rest of his process and he agreed (after I had a couple of coughing spells while he was there) that I needed something and wrote a prescription for Cheratussin AC Syrup. He then took my blood pressure again in my left arm and got 132 over 86, a much nicer number.

I got the prescription filled and came home. It’s kind of working. I took a nap and woke up coughing, so took another dose. Since then it’s been better.

But that got me wondering … what was the difference between the Calmylin from Canada I was taking and the prescription? It turns out that the prescription itself was twice the price of the Calmylin from Canada and half the potency of codeine. That doesn’t take into account the cost of the visit to the urgent care facility. I’m hoping that when I get to a position with sufficient codeine in my system, that taking the prescribed dose will maintain a reasonable suppressant level.

Because I’m now a Medicare / Blue Cross person, the urgent care facility first bills them and then whatever they don’t pay gets billed to me. So, I’ve no idea what this visit to see the PA actually cost. There was a sign with a price list and the cost associated with “cold or flu” was $55. That may not be the Medicare price, though.

Meanwhile, another front on the battle with this cold has been opened. It’ll go away some day, I’m sure of it.

TTFN!