One of the reasons that I like living in Switzerland is that health care is coordinated and well organized – at least in my experience. I awoke this morning feeling a little icky. My tongue was also a bit furry and green. My oncologist is on vacation, so I called the ER at the hospital where he practices. I was connected to an actual physician after a reasonable time, and I’m happy to say that between my bad German and the relatively good English spoken by the people on the other end of the phone, all was easily understood.

If i had pressed, i think the physician would have written me a script for an antifungal and sent it to a nearby apothek. i was pretty sure i was developing a fungal infection, but I’m not going to play doctor, and we had to go into the city anyway. So i arranged to arrive at the ER at noon. It was quiet, the nurse at the station remembered my call, I filled out a form, saw the doctor and left with a script for the antifungal by 12:15. The ER didn’t have the right dosage on hand and to construct it from the available doses would have been hard. Five minutes in the apothek, no crap about co-pays or authorization and I had my meds. And this is an apothek I’ve never been to before – of course my insurance card with identity chip made that easy.

Switzerland is not the US, it is much smaller. Health care is expensive, but not more expensive than the US, and it is much better organized and coordinated. And providers actually communicate with each other – makes a huge difference. Once again, I am happy to be having my Breast Cancer Adventure here. Given that I have to have it somewhere. ;-p

Had my 4th taxol last Thursday. Other than the fungus, it went well. Good energy, clear head, no rxns. No sign of neuropathy either. Am 1/3 of the way done with Taxol, 8 more to go. Hair and eyelashes seem to be returning too. We move ahead.