So it's meant lots of fluids for me--hello water, tea and juice, an earlier bedtime and a new round of antibiotics. It's also meant giving up caffeine (and alcohol) for 10 days. The alcohol thing, no problem. The coffee? Ug. That's a different story.

You know what's worse than being sick? Being sick and not being able to drink coffee. That's what.

Okay actually, it's probably being sick and not having insurance. (Sorry coffee.)

I'm lucky to have great health insurance at ACS. I have world wide coverage and after a low deductible, basically everything is covered. I pay out of pocket and then I am reimbursed upon submitting my receipts. The whole thing is pretty straightforward and for that I am incredibly thankful.

Especially given the fact that I've racked up a few hundred leva in visits to the doctor and prescriptions.

Two days ago, I went to fill my prescription at my neighborhood pharmacy and they only had half the medicine that I needed. As in half the number of pills I needed for two different prescriptions.  I guess these things happen in a country where no one actually counts pills for a prescription out and where the pharmacy is happy to open boxes and sell single sheets of pills (or cough drops or aspirin).

Anyhow, I was desperate to start the new antibiotics, I didn't feel well and I was doing the whole exchange in Bulgarian. So when it became clear that they didn't have enough in stock (I think because the medicine was expensive), I thought for sure that I wasn't going to get any medicine. The thought of being turned out onto the street without my antibiotics was more than I could handle.<!--more-->

Then there was a turn of events, they would sell me what they had and I could come back tomorrow for the rest. Okay. I can live with that. The pharmacist rings of the medicine and the total is pretty expensive.  I ask for a "faktura" (an official, formal receipt). She tells me no and then launches in a big formal explanation that I do not understand.

So I stand there with my money trying not to cry and wondering how many expats/foreigners are brought to tears each year in foreign pharmacies.

Now of course I have no idea what's being said to me. I explain in Bulgarian that I don't understand. The explanation starts over again. Only this time more slowly. Still not happening. This leads to me doing something I haven't had to do in a very long time: call a friend to translate.

It works. I'll pay for the medicine they have now, I'll come back tomorrow for the rest and then they'll make me a faktura for the whole thing. Apparently they can't make two different fakturas for the same prescription.

So I paid for the first half of the prescription. When I left the pharmacy without any proof of purchase--not a little receipt or anything--I figured that I was never going to get a faktura for the first half of my prescription. This of course means that I won't be able to get reimbursed by insurance for this purchase either.

When I went back yesterday, things seemed even less hopeful--neither of the two women who had waited on me the day before at the pharmacy were there. Great. Still I waited in line. And you know what? I got to the front of the line explained what happened yesterday in Bulgarian and she said, okay I understand. Then she filled the second half of my prescription and wrote out a faktura for me covering everything.

<em>Amazing</em>.