I started asking people a couple of months ago for the name of a doctor, but it hasn't been as easy as I had hoped. Some people had seen a doctor a time or two but wouldn't recommend them. One person gave me the name of someone in our old neighborhood, which is farther than I'd like to go. Some people speak both English and German and didn't know if their doctor spoke English. The kids' school gave me the name of an English-speaking doctor, and Dan made an appointment and went to see her, but he had a lukewarm reaction to her. She was stereotypical German: no-nonsense, terse, no friendly bedside manner. He told her he had several things to talk to her about and she said "You can ask me 3, then you need to make another appointment." So, I'd rather find someone else if I can. Supposedly our insurance company has an English concierge service, and I tried calling them a couple of weeks ago to get help in finding an English speaking doctor. They did mail me a list of doctors in my neighborhood, but it's not clear whether the list is all doctors or just the English speaking doctors.
Since I'm getting down to the wire on medication, this has gone to the top of my priority list and yesterday I did some research. I googled every doctor on the list the insurance company sent to see if they had a website or if maybe there were online reviews or any other information about them. I have found that some businesses advertise "English spoken here" or have the flag of Great Britain on their website to indicate that they speak English. However, I didn't find much. So I took Diablo out for a walk and we went by two of the doctors on the list to scope them out. Both were in humble buildings with signs outside in all German. From what I can tell, doctors here seem to mostly practice alone, not in big medical office buildings like in the US. They just rent a small space in any random building that looks like a house and they hang their sign outside.
Both doctors were closed (note the irregular hours on the sign; many places seem to be open in the morning and closed in the afternoon, or else to take a break at noon or so and return in the late afternoon) so I wasn't able to go inside, but I resolved to make a decision the following day.
So my plan for today was to choose one of the doctors, drop in, and make an appointment. I prefer a female doctor to a male, so that gave the edge to Dr. Spieck, but Dr. Lehl had a small website where he stated that he spoke English, so that was a point for him. I decided to ask in person if Dr. Spieck spoke English and go with her if the answer was yes. But, alas! Her office is closed on Wednesdays. So I headed to Dr. Lehl's place.
There was a musty smell inside and several people were standing around the front desk. While I waited my turn I could hear someone coughing down the hall. No bright lights, no nurses with little clipboards. It was like standing in someone's parlor and having an examination going on in the living room. There was a complete lack of privacy as we each in turn talked to the receptionist. I couldn't understand most of the German, but a lady needed an appointment and described her symptoms for all to hear. One man had an angry conversation, saying that he had been waiting too long. The clientele was mostly elderly and I was wondering if I had made a bad choice, although there was a young girl who walked out as I was walking in but maybe she just lives in the building. At some point a man in white pants had come to the desk to sit down next to the receptionist and when it was my turn, after I spoke in halting phrases to try to explain that I wanted to refill my prescriptions in Germany, he looked up and spoke to me in English, "Let's take a look at what you have." So apparently this was the doctor. I had brought the medicines, so again without any privacy I handed them over and the three of us discussed them right there in the parlor. I thought at first that he was going to just hand me over a prescription, but I realized that he just wanted to see what they were and then I would need to make an appointment to get the actual prescriptions. One of them he didn't know if I could get in Germany! He sent me down to the apotheke (pharmacy) a block away and told me to have them try to find something similar.
At the pharmacy, I handed my pill pack to the lady and tried to explain in German what the doctor told me. She sighed and looked mildly annoyed and proceeded to pull out the paperwork that goes with the medicine and pored over it for a while, periodically emitting sighs and puffs of air. Another pharmacist joined her and the two of them worked to discover the chemistry of the drug. After 20 minutes or so they informed me that Germany doesn't have the same medication, only a higher dosage. I'm not sure what my options are, so I guess the only thing to do is try it and hope it doesn't make me sick (I'm on the low dose because of nausea with higher doses). The second pharmacist spoke some English and told me that if I'm not happy with the medication I need to see "a lady doctor". Sigh, it was so easy in the US where I could see my same GP for any and all needs.
I went back to the doctor's office with the name of the medicine, and succeeded in making an appointment for next Monday. I'm sure that will be an adventure!
This was my third visit to the apotheke. Twice I have gone to the little one by our bus stop. The lady there is very nice but doesn't really speak English. The first time I went I needed syringes for Rhythm's insulin. At home I bought these in a box of 100 from the Walmart pharmacy for $12.97. The pharmacist here studied the syringe I had brought and the bag with the measurements on it and finally said that she didn't have anything but could order some. I was surprised to hear her say that I should come back at 2:00 to pick them up, how fast! When I returned, she had two different boxes of syringes that she showed me, but neither one had a small enough delineation. She said she could only get syringes for people, and I should try to get syringes for the cat from my vet. I took the animals to the vet last week and was able to buy syringes and more insulin directly from the vet (in the US I had to take my insulin prescription to a pharmacy). The insulin here is WAY WAY cheaper, only about 16 euros for a 1 month supply, vs. $220 for a 4 month supply at home. But, go figure, the syringes were about 35 euros here for 100 needles. Oh well, still cheaper overall than in the US.
My second visit to the apotheke was Monday. Carter came home from school with a bad headache and a super stuffy nose. I had given him tylenol for his headache that morning but it didn't seem to help him, so I figured the congestion was the problem and we didn't have anything for that. I was able to convey what I needed to the pharmacist, thanks to my German class I attend weekly at the kids' school where we have learned the words for body parts and symptoms of a cold! She told me to give him ibuprofen instead of acetaminophen, and she recommended some nasal spray that cost less than 4 Euros. So cheap! That was my most successful apotheke visit.
And finally for the dentists. A few weeks ago I wrote that I had found a dentist on our route to school and made appointments for myself and the kids. I was so proud to have accomplished that, but I went to my appointment and unfortunately decided not to return. The dentist was nice enough and I got a good cleaning for my teeth. They do it differently here. Instead of scrape scrape scraping your teeth to death with metal instruments like they do at my dentist in Missoula, she used like a sandblaster on my teeth! It was a high pressure blasting of some kind, with only minimal scraping. It seemed to be a thorough cleaning, and it wasn't an unpleasant experience. However, my problem came with what the dentist told me. She said that I need to replace all the fillings in my mouth, and at the end of the visit she quoted a price of about 2000 Euros!! I definitely got the feeling that she was trying to sell me her services, not that she was telling me this because of a problem with the current fillings. She kind of tag-teamed with the lady who did my cleaning, so they were both coming at it from different angles. The hygienist also tried to sell me tooth whitening. I have added a task to my to-do list to call my dentist in Missoula, because I'm pretty sure they sealed all my fillings with clear sealant recently because the fillings were getting old and they wanted to prevent cracking. So I'm pretty sure I don't actually need to do anything to my teeth, which means that I just don't think I can trust this dentist. The kids are getting to the age where orthodontics may come into play and I need to make sure we are going someplace where the dentist will only recommend expensive treatments if we actually need them!
So this morning right after I dropped the kids to school my first task was to check out a dentist near school that someone recommended to me (I found lots more people who would recommend their dentist than would recommend their doctor.) This place was walking distance from the school and we can catch the bus nearby to get home again. The lady at the front desk was very nice and I successfully got the kids signed up for February 16, the first day of their winter break. Not the most fun thing to do on vacation, but if I had waited for an after-school appointment I would have had to wait until March. Hopefully I will like this dental practice better, and we can all start going there.
Whew, I feel like I've done a full day's work! Now I need to summon my courage and call the first dentist to cancel the kids' appointments.
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