I was out for a visit to a friends house today. His wife is pregnant…very pregnant…as in 39 weeks today. They have been back and forth to hospital for weeks now. The initial due was the second week of June. Now it’s the first week of August. Go figure. So among their other challenges, their 3-year-old daughter has come down sick. They took her to the doctor today and he wasn’t sure why she was sick, but though she needed some vitamins. At any rate, by the time I got there she still had a fever. I asked if they’d given her any Paracetamol (the local equivalent of Tylenol).
“No. We don’t have any,” they said.
“Really?” said I. And then it hit me…again…how much I take for granted. I probably have 3-4 bottles of Paracetamol in my house, each from various times my kids were sick. It’s only about two dollars, so I usually buy fresh stuff, having forgotten that I already have it. Not only that, but I probably have six different variants of children’s Tylenol, Tylenol cold, Tylenol cold & cough, Motrin, etc. in my house. If I had to guess, I bet you’re in the same boat. As Americans, we have medications stuffed into every nook and cranny of our bathrooms.
My friend didn’t have anything. At any rate, we ran down to the Pharmacy (a twenty minute round trip) and picked up some medicine. Hopefully my little 3-year-old friend slept better last night :)
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