- Joined
- Jul 19, 2016
- Messages
- 323
HeadsUp: This post / thread may be a bit of a dog's breakfast, as I'm just going to throw all my health and medicine related questions in here for now.
Plan to retire back to RI within the next couple of years. I'm 57 and have multiple and fairly serious health issues including: Diabetes Type 2, chronic hypertension, high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, coronary heart disease, COPD, fatty liver, sleep apnea, diabetic neuropathy, peripheral artery disease, osteoarthritis, etc, etc.
I'm currently taking about nine or ten different Rx meds daily, plus a once a week injection for Diabetes. I will need to either continue most of these or reasonable substitutes, probably for the rest of my life, OR ("alternatively"), find alternate means to treat the conditions listed above. So I am interested in honest and forthright opinions on the following:
1) Ability to obtain the meds I'm on now, or relative equivalents in Western medicines, specifically in Balikpapan, and rough cost range of same (currently I pay a copay around 120 - 150 USD for a three month supply of generic meds) ?
2) Thoughts on / experience of using Jamu / TCM as alternative treatments for whole body health issues (not counting on replacing my BiPap machine, but otherwise ...)?
If you find the second idea ridiculous / laughable or simply inadvisable, that's fine and feel free to say so, but back that up as much as possible with the reasons. I'm a tree hugging type at heart and I also know that at least half of Western Rx meds with stupid names have active ingredients from wild plants in rainforests etc. I'm really curious to know if anyone has actually tried to go this route, or knows about the experience of others, and if so what the result was. I expect Bad_azz and Atlantis, among others, would likely have some knowledge or input.
Also, if I join BPJS, will it cover meds, including Western ones or reasonable local substitutes?
Plan to retire back to RI within the next couple of years. I'm 57 and have multiple and fairly serious health issues including: Diabetes Type 2, chronic hypertension, high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, coronary heart disease, COPD, fatty liver, sleep apnea, diabetic neuropathy, peripheral artery disease, osteoarthritis, etc, etc.
I'm currently taking about nine or ten different Rx meds daily, plus a once a week injection for Diabetes. I will need to either continue most of these or reasonable substitutes, probably for the rest of my life, OR ("alternatively"), find alternate means to treat the conditions listed above. So I am interested in honest and forthright opinions on the following:
1) Ability to obtain the meds I'm on now, or relative equivalents in Western medicines, specifically in Balikpapan, and rough cost range of same (currently I pay a copay around 120 - 150 USD for a three month supply of generic meds) ?
2) Thoughts on / experience of using Jamu / TCM as alternative treatments for whole body health issues (not counting on replacing my BiPap machine, but otherwise ...)?
If you find the second idea ridiculous / laughable or simply inadvisable, that's fine and feel free to say so, but back that up as much as possible with the reasons. I'm a tree hugging type at heart and I also know that at least half of Western Rx meds with stupid names have active ingredients from wild plants in rainforests etc. I'm really curious to know if anyone has actually tried to go this route, or knows about the experience of others, and if so what the result was. I expect Bad_azz and Atlantis, among others, would likely have some knowledge or input.
Also, if I join BPJS, will it cover meds, including Western ones or reasonable local substitutes?