Pharmacies -- the real health care workers in Vietnam

Carter has a pretty severe ingrown toenail that he's been suffering with for about a month.  We finally decided to try and alleviate his discomfort with more than home remedies -- so we headed down to the pharmacy in our building.

While we could have gone to the doctor's office or even the western-style hospital, we have discovered that it is the pharmacy where a lot of the health care takes place in Vietnam.  We took Carter down to the pharmacy and talked to the young woman working there to describe the problem.  This woman looks to be about 20 years old and I'm skeptical how much medical training she has had, but she figured out the ailment and sold us these two products below.  One is an anti-inflammatory and one is an antibiotic.  We did not need a prescription from a doctor, and the cost of the medications was about $4.  Since then, Carter's inflammation has gone down and he appears to be in less pain.

If there was something seriously wrong, we would obviously go to a doctor or hospital.  But it is convenient for us to have the pharmacist system here in Southeast Asia.