So now that I'm well enough to sit up straight without feeling woozy, I have a lot to catch you all up on! As you may or may not know, Jeremy went to Amsterdam for work and brought home the flu. That was almost two weeks ago and I'm finally feeling well enough to do very basic tasks. I feel exhausted and if the scale is right, I have lost 15 pounds in the 32 days I've been here. We went to a doctor on Monday and I have to say, so far I am pretty pleased with their health care.
We don't have our health care cards, called Carte Vitales, yet. This is proof of our insurance but it can take a long time to get. Luckily, even though we don't have the physical card, our insurance started on the first day Jeremy worked. So we just pay out of pocket as though we don't have health insurance, keep the receipts and then when we do get our cards, we can mail the receipts and get reimbursed. I've read that you get reimbursed for about 60-70% of doctor consultations and prescription costs. It sounds like a bummer but here's the thing: everything is so much cheaper here! Price of the doctor visit: 25€, price of a chest X-Ray: 28€, price of 5 prescriptions: 77€. Could you imagine the price of all that in the US if you didn't have health insurance?! One of the prescriptions, an inhaler, was 55€ so if we hadn't gotten that, it would have been 22€ for four medications without health insurance or a prescription plan. I can't even imagine walking into a radiology suite in the US without insurance and walking out only owing $32.
The doctor was very nice, too. She was recommended by a coworker because she can speak English. She took her time to listen, she asked tons of questions, and made sure she was giving me every thing she could think of. I feel like in America, you're just roughly examined and given some antibiotics. She gave me antibiotics, an inhaler, a nasal spray, corticosteroids, and a fever reducer/muscle pain reliever (I had strained a few muscles from coughing so much), and sent me for a chest X-Ray to make sure I didn't develop pneumonia. She went over every medication, when to take them, how long to take them for, and if they should be taken with a meal. She also called the radiology clinic to see if they could take me right away.
I feel bad because I can't use the inhaler and I haven't taken the corticosteroids. The inhaler makes me instantaneously throw up, it's disgusting, and the corticosteroids I'm just really apprehensive about taking. I know they can cause bad nausea, and I already have bad nausea from the antibiotics, so I'm just nervous to take them. I feel like at this point I've already lost so much weight being sick that it's more important to keep the little food I can stomach down. I already feel quite a bit better in the couple days I've been on the rest of the medicine, so I'm hopeful I won't need to use them.
We don't have our health care cards, called Carte Vitales, yet. This is proof of our insurance but it can take a long time to get. Luckily, even though we don't have the physical card, our insurance started on the first day Jeremy worked. So we just pay out of pocket as though we don't have health insurance, keep the receipts and then when we do get our cards, we can mail the receipts and get reimbursed. I've read that you get reimbursed for about 60-70% of doctor consultations and prescription costs. It sounds like a bummer but here's the thing: everything is so much cheaper here! Price of the doctor visit: 25€, price of a chest X-Ray: 28€, price of 5 prescriptions: 77€. Could you imagine the price of all that in the US if you didn't have health insurance?! One of the prescriptions, an inhaler, was 55€ so if we hadn't gotten that, it would have been 22€ for four medications without health insurance or a prescription plan. I can't even imagine walking into a radiology suite in the US without insurance and walking out only owing $32.
The doctor was very nice, too. She was recommended by a coworker because she can speak English. She took her time to listen, she asked tons of questions, and made sure she was giving me every thing she could think of. I feel like in America, you're just roughly examined and given some antibiotics. She gave me antibiotics, an inhaler, a nasal spray, corticosteroids, and a fever reducer/muscle pain reliever (I had strained a few muscles from coughing so much), and sent me for a chest X-Ray to make sure I didn't develop pneumonia. She went over every medication, when to take them, how long to take them for, and if they should be taken with a meal. She also called the radiology clinic to see if they could take me right away.
I feel bad because I can't use the inhaler and I haven't taken the corticosteroids. The inhaler makes me instantaneously throw up, it's disgusting, and the corticosteroids I'm just really apprehensive about taking. I know they can cause bad nausea, and I already have bad nausea from the antibiotics, so I'm just nervous to take them. I feel like at this point I've already lost so much weight being sick that it's more important to keep the little food I can stomach down. I already feel quite a bit better in the couple days I've been on the rest of the medicine, so I'm hopeful I won't need to use them.