I haven’t posted in over a week because I had a cold. I feel like I am catching colds here constantly! My guess is that since this is a part of the world I have never been to, I have never been exposed to any of these germs, so my immune system isn’t very good fighting them off!

This has led to finding one of the most amazing differences between Malaysia and the US: the Pharmacists and what they are allowed to do.

In Malaysia, the pharmacists can give out most medications. You can walk into any pharmacy, tell the pharmacist what is wrong and they will give you the meds you need with instructions on how to use them. No doctor appointment needed, no prescription needed. This doesn’t just apply to cold medicine; a coworker with migraines walked in and walked out with fantastic migraine medicine. I have gotten meds for my asthma, for my arthritic knee, sinuses, you name it!

There are a few things you still need to go to a doctor for; strong pain meds (like narcotics), psychiatric meds, and antibiotics, but since they have public healthcare here it is still easy for the residents here.

Last weekend when I realized I actually had a cold and not just a sore throat from allergies I went to the pharmacy near my apartment. The pharmacist is usually at the back of the store. In my experience they are all very nice. At this pharmacy the pharmacist was an Indian lady. This was my experience:

Pharmacist: (as soon as I walk in the door) “Can I help you?”

Me: “I have a cold, it’s all up here in my head (gesturing to my sinuses). I have a sore throat and a headache.

Pharmacist already walking back to the meds. She hands me a small bag with medication. “Take this twice a day. Take it with food. Don’t take it on an empty stomach. Do you want Vitamin C too?”

Me: “Ohh, that’s a good idea. Yes”

Pharmacist “Do you want the GOOD vitamin C?:

Me: “Yeah, I don’t want to be sick”

The pharmacist walks into the aisles of the store, grabs a box for me.

I pay and leave.

Within a few days I feel much better.

The other great thing is the lack of the FDA. Although I am not against the FDA per se, I think there are a lot of meds that most of the world uses that we don’t have in the US. This was evident to me when I first moved here and got a nasty upper respiratory infection. I have lousy lungs, so upper respiratory infections normally lead to bronchitis for me. At that point I was feeling pretty lousy and was coughing up some pretty gross green stuff, pretty clear sign in an infection. This is bad for me; I am allergic to antibiotics. Fighting off infections is not easy for me. I went to the pharmacy, told them how I felt and they gave me an expectorant. I woke up the next morning, coughed for about 10 minutes straight bringing up some nasty gross stuff and immediately felt 10 times better. I was shocked. This never happens for me. I looked up this amazing decongestant and found that although used in Europe, Asia and most of the world since the 60s, it isn’t FDA approved in the US. So this amazing medication won’t be available to me once I move back to the US.

All-in-all I am a huge fan of the pharmacy system in the US!