Ahh vacation! Behold the beauty of family together time in tepid semi-exotic locations: Disney, Cirque du Soleil, NASA, Universal Studios, sun, gators, oranges...

...and an inner ear infection. Hey, there is always a catch. I managed a 45 minute run today around the manmade lake at the condo we are staying in near Orlando. Shorts and a running top only for the first time in many months...what a beautiful thing..but I cannot hear a damned thing out of my right ear.

In Italy we have national free health insurance. If you feel sick, you can go to a pharmacy, tell them what your symptoms are, and they, as trained doctors, can prescribe something for whatever ails you. If it is a little more serious or if your symptoms continue, you can make a trip to your doctor for free and he can prescribe something for you, send you for blood tests (yes, also free) or just keep a general eye on you. My last antibiotics were one euro. A seven day treatment for one euro.

So today, when my hearing in my right ear did not return, I decided to try what I would in Italy back here in the states: I go first to the pharmacist to see if I can get some info. I asked him what he had over-the-counter for someone with my x symptoms. His response was "see a doctor" but when I gave him my dejected, puppy-dog routine (not one word, just the stare), he finally started asking a few questions like how long have I had it? How did it start? In the end, I had three people running around helping me find over-the-counter meds while he explained what was most likely happening to me... "You've got congestion, it's built up between your glands and your ear and this is why you cannot hear. You might need antibiotics but try this first."

Let's hope this works (as of now, 12 hours later, I'm about the same) but if it doesn't I will need to find a doctor on my vacation and pay loads of money that I could have used for cheesy souvenirs for my friends and little nephew Treyton. My gues-timate? About 300usd after urgent care visit plus antibiotics not to mention wasted precious vacation time.

I guess my sorrowful little story has a moral or point: How on earth (this is a hidden segue) did we get to this point where something as basic as human health is more expensive then my entire family's one day trip to Walt Disney World? Secondly, why can't this information be open-source and free to the public for the betterment of humankind? Rhetorical questions here because my cognative dissonance inhibits any response: I'm having culture shock in my own country.

So here is that segue I was promising:

We DID get to see the Atlantis launch into space today and it was utterly radical. And now, orbiting our earth, is a whole gaggle of astronauts looking down at all of us... :D