The Pharmacy- Where All Meds Are Kept

Need meds? There is only one place to get them. The pharmacy. I am convinced that Swedes almost never use medications for a few different reasons: the mindset, the cost, alternative/natural remedies, and the pharmacy hours.

The pharmacy is only open six days a week (M- Sat), opens at 8 am and closes at 6 pm. If you have medication needs outside of that, you have to go to the hospital. I feel really uneasy living in a country without a 24 hr pharmacy within my grasp. I stock our medicine cabinet and have baby medicines in case we need them because I worry about not being able to get them easily.

I have been with my beau Anton for years. And in this time we have been together he has complained on several occasions about various ailments. My response is always, "did you take something for it"? I assume that if the problem is annoying enough for someone to complain about it, he or she will then take the necessary steps to ease their own suffering. I'm not sure if Anton is that lazy or just does not really like taking medications. I think it's the latter but I'm not so sure why. I will have to ask.

Many people here seem to have aversions to medicine or only take it in dire circumstances. I think it's great that abuse of medications doesn't seem to be a big problem here, but at the same time is taking medication when you need it really so awful? I bet some people mentally fight with themselves over this. I've had people give me natural or other remedies for ailments here before I take a medication. I think that's nice, but  I also feel like I know my body well enough on what will work for me a lot of the time and sometimes homeopathic remedies won't cut it.

The only time doctors wanted to try to medicate me was during labor. My anesthesiologist convinced me to get an epidural in case of emergency. I hate to say it but I wasn't really given a choice. Well to make sure the epidural works, they have to give you a test shot. That lasted about half hour. And then I went back to being in pain. I think they did that more for fear of complications. I was probably the heaviest pregnant woman she had ever seen and they really did not want to have an emergency c-section. My delivery went smooth as far as I could tell and I had no complications.

When Rosa was a couple weeks old she got thrush and I wanted her to take medicine. I knew that when it started it was not very bad, but a few days later it was thicker and had spread to her gums. The midwife would not give me medication for her. She told me to take something like club soda and rub it on her tongue before feeding her. It's like they want you to wait things out or try the homeopathic way first. The next time we saw the midwife the thrush was still there, as I knew it would be, and I procured a prescription. Poor baby had it for over a month and we had to get a second script for it. The prescription costs over $40, I think it was like $47, and we had it twice.

They do have pain reliever and cough drops at the grocery stores too, but the latest the store is open here is 10 pm. Also most of the time I'm not looking for either of those things. I have a 500 tablet bottle of Tylenol at home, and a couple bags of cough drops, so I think I'm good on that. I think the Swedish mindset may be healthier about medication. Over-medicating oneself is never the way to go. What I don't like is the lack of convenience when medication is a necessity. Not only do the hours just plain suck for the pharmacy, but there are less medications and over the counter options here. Medication options are vital because people react differently to the same medications. I guess I will keep stocking my pharmacologicals from the US. Until next time...