if you're vegan, what happens if you get sick and need meds and other care?!

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I'm vegan.
If there was an alternative that didn't involve animals, then I would take that.
But, if there was no alternative, and it was a serious problem I had, I would take the medication tested on animals.
Back when I was vegetarian, I had to take a medication that I needed to help me recover from something and could not stop taking until the doctor felt I was ready, or I'd risk a lot of serious problems reoccuring.
The medication had been tested on animals, because the law demanded it, and contained gelatine. I followed the doctors orders, because I needed to stay alive, and this was something essential for that to happen. I wasn't pleased that it had gelatine, and was glad when I stopped taking it, but I knew it was essential at the time.
Taking medication is often a life/death situation.
Eating animal products is not an essential thing for life unless there is no different food and you will starve to death without it.
Using cosmetics / shampoo etc thats been tested on animals is never a life/death situation.

If it's tested on animals, vegans (real ones, not posers) find a homeopathic alternative or do without.

Simple as that.

~5 year vegan~

Use vegan, non animal tested or derived products to the extent possible, and use non-vegan products to the extent that they're unavoidable.

Every individual has a different definitions of "unavoidable" of course. Some people are OK with taking a regular multivitamin, while others spend additional money and time to find a vegan version. Some will take a OTC painkiller even though the capsule is made with gelatin and the product is animal tested; others will just live with a headache. But I don't think any (sane) vegan would refuse life-saving medication, in protest of animal testing that already occurred years ago.

The point to veganism is to avoid harming animals/using animal products where possible, not to take it to extremes. You don't have to starve yourself because insects are killed during the harvesting process, or feed your house to the termites.

The word 'vegan' is not synonymous with the word 'martyr'.

Being vegan is about minimising your personal contribution to animal suffering and exploitation as much as is, in the words of the man who invented the word vegan, reasonable and practical.

Risking your health ans sacrificing your life are not reasonable or practical options.

All medication and all medical procedures have, by law, been tested on animals.Not only that but many/most medication contains animal by-products - for example, capsules are usually made from gelatine, and lactose is often included in pills because it's a cheap binder.

Suggesting that a vegan refuse animal-tested drugs and procedures is to suggest that should a vegan break his/her leg in five places, s/he would not only refuse anaesthetic, but refuse to have the bones reset; or if a vegan was to develop a life threatening illness, s/he would not only refuse life-saving medication but would die in agony while refusing any and all pain relief.

And I promise you, nobody's going to do that, no matter how loudly they proclaim (while well) that everything you need for good health can be found in a food shop, or that animal life is as precious as human life and they would never take animal-tested meds. They will be singing a very different tune if they were in a serious accident or they developed cancer.

I'm vegan to minimise my contribution to animal suffering; but I value human life, including my own, way over animal life. Sven years ago I was diagnosed with advanced cancer (yes, vegans do get it). Without animal-tested drugs and procedures I would, without a doubt, be dead. As it is I am alive and well with no sign of cancer.

None of that makes me any less of a vegan, certainly according to the man who invented and defined the word vegan - and that's good enough for me.

You're right: "pretty much no one is really vegan then..." because when vegans get sick, their "ethics" go right out the window. Here in the US virtually EVERY medication has been tested on animals, not models, live animals, before it was put into human trials, then released to the public.

Additionally, manufacturers pull one syringe out of each batch and test it on animals before they ship that batch. That doesn't stop Mary Beth Sweetland, PETA, from giving herself a shot of animal based insulin every day for her diabetes.

Lol -- any person who would willingly RISK THEIR LIFE not to take an antibiotic just because drugs are tested to make sure they work... IS A MORON.
No matter what their 'ethical' views are.
They don't do any old "animal testing" with medications -- they simply do testing to make sure that the medicine WORKS in the animal model before moving on to humans! It's not like they're putting the medicine in their eyes or something!!
They get a sick animal, and they treat it with the drug to see if it works!
What's so cruel about that?
You're right in that the law states animal models MUST be tested first -- but that is to make sure the drug does what it should, has no side effects, and doesn't do anything else.
They'd rather if the drug doesn't do it's job, or has nasty side effects, they find out on an animal model BEFORE moving on to humans. Also, it has to be an animal model whose body systems function as close to exactly the same way ours do as possible, so they can extrapolate the data.

The issue of medication is one of avoiding unnecessary products. There are plenty of herbal remedies for colds and flu, but it is up to the sufferer whether they choose to use a medicine. The fact is, any available medicine is no longer being tested on animals, and avoiding pharmaceuticals is more about boycotting these corporations on principle since they use animal testing.

However there is a critical point that must be considered, and that is in many countries it is illegal to produce a medicine without animal testing. And since there are corporate laws protecting medicines as patented property of the pharmaceutical corporations which own them, it is not possible for an ethical company to produce a similar medication without testing based on what has been produced in other countries etc.

So you see, it comes down to whether or not you want to give such companies money. When I get a headache I take a pill, because I boycott all the other products such corporations make (ie toothpastes, shampoos, deodorants, vitamins, contraceptives etc etc) as there are vegan alternatives. But when there is no alternative, it is a bit ridiculous to suffer or die when realistically animals are not being directly harmed by your purchase anyway.

It's the same as if a dog attacks me, I'll defend myself any way I see fit. Veganism is not based on the irrational ideology of allowing ourselves to be harmed for a principle, it is about avoiding as many products and activities that harm animals as we can reasonably do. Some people suggest that philosophy is hypocritical, but if a vegan avoids items tested on animals 90% of the time, that is still far less money and support received by those companies than if they said "**** it, I can't avoid everything all the time, so I won't bother avoiding anything ever."

The health food store has everything you need...especially if you are pretty healthy already. If you stay loaded up on fresh/raw fruits and veggies as the seasons permits them, and practice good hygiene, you should rarely become sick anyway. If there's one in your area, WHOLE FOODS IS THE GREATEST. Check it out and become enlightened! ;-)