WordPress Daily Prompt: Placebo Effect

If you could create a painless, inexpensive cure for a single ailment, what would you cure and why?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us a HEALTH.

The photo originates from my first aid help days in the local village. The local police paid a visit and told us all about the evils of certain drugs. We had quite a selection to choose from and this was one of the happy pill selections.

So here we are again, making a choice to change the happiness of manhood. I remember, many years ago, when my grandmother had various ailments. I probably will have various ailments too when I grow older (OK, I have some now). What did the wise doctor do? At that time, in the sixties, there were fewer cures than today, so he gave my grandmother tablets: little white tablets and she was happy. She felt a lot better, believed in the tablets and that seemed to be the solution. The word “placebo” was not in common use at that time, but that was what she was getting. A cure for all illnesses, perhaps a pain reliever, but it seemed to work, although the pill could just have well as been something from the candy shop. It was all in the mind.

I will not be creating any cure for any ailment, there are too many to choose from and to be realistic, at one time or the other our clockwork runs down and you cannot wind it up anymore, so-called end station. For some it arrives too early and for others no so early: the luck of the draw.

Being a golden oldie, you make experiences through life. Mr. Swiss is also a golden oldie, he is almost platinum, so we both have our little ailments, some more than others. The uncle doctor gives you tablets and medicine as a help. As the Mr. Swiss ailments are other than the Mrs. Angloswiss ailments, we have to organise our placebos cures. They come in all sorts of boxes, blister packing, little bottles and sometimes in tubes according to their purpose and can be quite colourful. This can present problems. The space we need for these little helpers must be organised, and we have noticed over the years that we need more and more space.

We have now progressed to a complete drawer in a cupboard, where everything is distributed. I even began to file the various accompanying leaflets to the medicine, but then I realised they were all on Internet so I decided this was a waste of space. Just a click on the description of the medicine and it can be read in the necessary language. It might be that Mr. Swiss and I share the same medicine. That is quite useful, especially if my supplies are running low. We do pill sharing. If we are really at rock bottom with our addiction needs, just a visit to the doctor (we even share the same doctor) is necessary to pick up the refill. Sometimes it can be a little bit dangerous, just making a grip into the supply. Some tablets resemble the others, and I do not want my blood pressure soaring through the ceiling or Mr. Swiss certainly does not want his blood sugar level to break records. However, we now have a small shelf reserved in the kitchen for the daily needs: his on the left and mine on the right, just to keep things organised. Yes the life of the aging can be quite fun sometimes.

There is also a mental time table, which reminds me I must take my Vitamin B tablet now. They are not just Vitamin B, but an anti ageing Vitamin B, especially for diabetics. These are quite expensive and not available on Swiss prescription as they are a German product. My doctor even advised me to make a trip to Germany (only an hour away) to buy them in Germany as they are much cheaper.

Switzerland is quite well known for pharmaceutical production and we have a couple of large Swiss companies. Unfortunately we also have Swiss prices, and it is a known fact that our pharmaceutical products can be bought at cheaper prices in other countries in Europe.

So there we have it, two golden/platinum oldies making a hobby of sorting their daily dosis of happy pills and medicine. If our problems would be solved with a fantastic placebo, life would become boring. Our main conversational subject will be missed, our medical organisation system will be redundant, but we will have more room in the drawer for something else. We could play chess (I cannot and Mr. Swiss is not so keen on it), perhaps more gardening if it were not for our back problems and oncoming arthritis. I could take up cooking, but I already have that integrated in my house hobbies.

Mr. Swiss would have more time to read and I would have more time to blog. Oh – what a future lies before us. 

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