When I get sick I almost always go into Bronchitis and this time was no different. I went to the Doc and sure enough I had a secondary sinus and bronchial infection so he prescribed Bactrim. He asked if I have ever taken Sulfa drugs and to my knowledge I have not so off to Walgreens with a script. Twelve hours later and I look like a lobster but my cough is better. It seems Bactrim is a great drug to prevent patients from developing pneumonia but it has a high sensitivity rate. On a return visit to the doc I got a shot of a steroid to calm the hives and a new script for Levaquin, another kick ass antibiotic that I can tolerate. Here's the sucky thing though. Bactrim cost me $6.67 out of pocket because it's on my health plan's formulary. Levaquin cost me $35.00 because it's not. When I called my insurance company crying foul they said that's just the way it is. So common cheaper drugs that are on the formulary I'm allergic to and the effective not so allergic drugs I have to pay a premium for. That just figures.
Oh and it turns out that if my Doc had known that I was allergic to shellfish he would not have prescribed Bactrim. That little tidbit of info was buried in my file somewhere...
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