The curse of medicines

 I have never been a fan of medicines except when I broke my bones. The pain of broken bones is not quite pleasant and you need a technician to set the broken pieces together in harmony once again. And you need painkillers.

Covid-19 confined me to a hospital bed in the last four days. I shouldn't have gone to hospital in the first place. I should have just contented myself with the medicines given by my neighbourhood hospital. But I had a slight breathing problem in the night which refused to subside with my usual dose of Asthalin. So I thought of seeking technical assistance. You don't feel like taking too many risks when you've crossed the age of 60. 

The amount of medicines that the nurse put out on the table for me to consume each morning, noon, and evening threw me into a bout of depression. There was just one tab alone, Flavipiravir, that would fill my belly with all its 1800 milligrams in weight, apart from half a dozen others which were mercifully lightweight champions. 

My breathing problem vanished within hours. But I started getting other problems. I lost appetite. How wouldn't I? I was eating a bellyful of tabs instead of normal food. Soon I developed loose motion. I told the nurse to reduce the medication to the most essential because of the condition of my bowels. She said she would consult the doc.

The doc refused to reduce my medicines and instead added two more tabs to them for treating my motion problems. "I don't have fever, why do you feed me Paracetamol?" I questioned. "I don't have cough now, why should I take the cough syrup?" The nurse said I had to complete "the course" of the medication. I couldn't understand that logic. I became much more sick than when I was admitted. 

Thankfully the doctor accepted my request to be discharged on the fourth day. I'm improving rapidly at home now with an intake of a quarter of the prescribed medicines. 

I'm not questioning the validity of the medical science. Far from it, I rely on medical science whenever I am not well. But I always check on internet what the medicines are meant for and discard quite many of the prescribed ones. I think I remain healthy because I take less medicines than I am usually sold. 

By the way, I tested positive for Covid five days after I took the vaccine. I think if I hadn't gone for the vaccine, I would have remained healthy now. I'm not sure but that's my strong hunch.