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Friday, July 26, 2019

Today's Errands

At the post office this morning, I ran into a guy from New Zealand, and I'll tell you what, the English he was speaking was more foreign to me than any foreign language, including Indonesian. Could not for the life of me understand him. Of course, this was most due to the accent. In fact, the Indonesian clerk at the counter understood him better than I!

Anyway, from there it was on to Denpasar to buy two medications, Trileptal and Paxil. The Trileptal is for the weird inner heat symptoms from which I continue to suffer, and I thought Paxil might be helpful in general, as I had found it to be in the past. Damned expensive though. Two million rupiah, around 150 dollars. This comes after buying more H2 blockers yesterday for the continuing inflammatory gastritis problem, 500.000 Rupiah. Gonna go broke trying to make myself well.

I always have the doctor write a prescription rather than having these meds filled at the hospital, because the local apotek (pharmacy) is significantly cheaper than the hospital. The trouble is, you have to wait an awfully long time to get your meds because, of course, everyone knows about this price difference and everyone goes to the apotek. 

In the meantime, I still have no idea what to do about the weird lizard skin problem. I've tried various creams and lotions, all to no positive effect. Actually the thing that has worked best (though still not well) is coconut oil! Olive oil is also somewhat effective, as is vinegar. And they sure as hell cost less than medicines. 

So now, already going on 1 o'clock, I've stopped for a coffee (decaf) on the way home. Errands are generally boring, but they burn up some time, and take your mind off your woes for awhile. 

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