Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose. By Sunday afternoon it had become a full out case of bronchitis. This morning I felt so bad that on Jen’s advice I went to the doctor. This is an unheard of action on my part. In the past, I’ve figured that you just have to tough out a cold. This is apparently not the case as the doctor gave me a shot, prescribed an antibiotic and told me to buy Mucinex D. He believes I should be feeling better by the morning. Total cost, $30 for the doctors visit, $60 for the medication and probably an additional charge for the shot which will come next week in the mail. I am fortunate. My health insurance is good, I work at a place that has compensated sick days (though today is my day off), and I have enough money to afford to go to the doctor and buy medicine. However, for someone who is not as fortunate as I am, this could be devastating. More than likely they couldn’t afford to go to the doctor because they can’t afford the health insurance, they couldn’t afford the prescriptions that would help them get better so they prolong their illness, and they couldn’t afford to take the time off so they either lose a weeks wages or they may face losing their job. A bad cold for me means I spend a few days feeling lousy, a bad cold for the working poor could mean finding a new job.