The doctor's office just told me that they were not allowed to call in

[Ms. Toad]

228. The key part of that being - "a doctor should rule out"

I do have some concern that far too many doctors prescribe antibiotics to get their patients to stop complaining, but my primary concern is just prescribing antibiotics over the phone because a patient doesn't want to come in.

And, just to continue my general theme, pneumonia can either be viral, bacterial, or in some instances caused by parasites - so even pneumonia shouldn't just have antibiotics thrown at it.

(My personal weeks-on-end is just the pattern my colds have followed since I was a child. Violent coughing to clear the thick green phlegm for at least two weeks, and another two in the lead-up and tail end. Perhaps a third of a time it turned into bronchitis (diagnosed by a doctor). Until I discovered zinc a dozen or so years ago. I just got over one I caught early enough with zinc - started with a scratchy throat on Monday around 5 PM, and was done by Saturday morning. So after 40 years of never having a cold last fewer than 4 weeks, the only time they last longer than a week now is when I ignore that first scratchy throat - or exhausted my stock of zinc and can't get to a store fast enough).