Tonight my sister had an asthma attack and her inhaler ran out. It was late and the nearest open pharmacy was 3km away. Our options were:

  1. Walk 42 minutes to the pharmacy.
  2. Wait 40 minutes, walk 10 minutes to the bus station, take the hourly night bus (pray the route isn’t skipped), and walk 15 minutes to the pharmacy.
  3. Drive 8 minutes.

Fortunately, I have a car, so that was an option. However, tomorrow I won’t sleep at home and my sister doesn’t have a license, and maybe that happens the next time she forgets to refill… We live in Athens the capital of Greece, not a rural area, not a small town, but the fucking capital.

Car dependency sucks.

Edit: While ambulances are an option, no matter how unreliable they may be, having to escalate, when it shouldn’t be necessary, is increasing the load of an already overloaded health care sector.

  • detalferous@lemm.eeEnglish
    451·
    9 months ago

    Please don’t depend on an inhaler as a rescue medicine… If she is using Albuterol then she needs a controller medication to take every day. Asthma can be life threatening; please make sure she gets effective care.

    I’m sorry you had to deal with everything and am so glad you were able to drive to help her. She is lucky to have you.

    • souperk@reddthat.comOPEnglish
      4·
      9 months ago

      It has been a rough journey for her, lots of conflicting diagnosis and treatments. It’s really hard to get reliable medical advice for that.

      Right now she is using aerolin, mostly because it kinda helps and it’s cheap. But, we are looking for a doctor we can trust.

      Thanks for your concern and kind words ❤️