Doctors in Germany

I finally went to a doctor for the first time since Lilly was 6 weeks old. What a different experience here than at home! This doctor is the same one I had found for David. She's female, 40 years old, and fluent in English. There's such a difference in the attitude that doctors in Germany have compared with doctors in the U.S. I believe it has to do with the health care system differences, although I would have to explore that a little more to be sure.

Dr. P answers her email! She sent me (over a year ago) recommendations for a pediatrician. She is the one who came to get me out of the waiting room. And even though she was at least 35 minutes late today, she still spent twenty minutes with me and set up three appointments with me (necessary since I haven't had anything preventive done in over two years). I finally figured out that doctors go by Herr and Frau here instead of by their professional position. (Wouldn't it be funny if I required everyone to call me Analyst Alexander all the time?) In my opinion, they're just more down to earth here than at home. And she is not my only data point.

The other day, I was having dinner with some girlfriends (most of whom were new to me), and one of them noticed that her doctor was at the table next to us. He came and sat down with us for a minute and chatted jovially. He told her he was watching her! Lol. It's a very interesting dynamic here that I'm somewhat grateful for. Usually seeing a doctor is stressful enough, but here it would be worse because of the language barrier at the front desk (everywhere) and the difficulty in getting there (I took the bus to make it easy on myself). The down-to-Earth attitude of most of the doctors here at least alleviated part of that stress. Yay for German doctors, and especially the one I met today!

On another note, we had a lovely little birthday party for the twins yesterday.  I had them invite five friends each, and then I invited one more because I wanted her parents to stop by, too.  Of the 11 kids we invited, 7 showed up. It turns out that my cowboy theme was a good idea.  I was able to get some cute cowboy hats from Amazon. Then, much to my delight, a local chain discounted some ponies at a very high discount. Plus, I decided to do a "torn paper" craft and build a cactus for a "pin the flower on the cactus game". Torn paper was a craft I found last year at this time for kids at my work Christmas party. (Torn paper Christmas trees.) I consider it a Pinterest success! I used foam and glue sticks for the flowers, and some of the children liked them so much that they took their flowers home with them.

One little boy was so shy that his mom decided to stay. Thank God!  Her translation proved to be invaluable.  I'm sure we would have gotten by, but her help made it a lot less stressful for me.  What a sweetheart! We sent home treat bags (plus the cowboy hats) with "gold dust" (yellow gum), "rocks" (jelly beans"), and balloons. I wanted to include sheriff's badges, but the cowboy hats were pricey enough, and the sheriff's badges were pretty chintzy, so I didn't get them. I wanted to buy enough horses for everyone, but the store only had 4. So we had "door prizes."

It was a fun party, and fun to finally get to interact with some Germans, who were very sweet all around. Perhaps their public presence is different from their private presence. Or perhaps the parents at the twins' school are just a little more easy-going. Who knows? Regardless, it was a good time.

Next up for me, I have to make 40 cupcakes without icing and figure out how to take them to the twins' school.  It was nice that we didn't have to invite all of the kids in the classes to the birthday party.  I can't imagine this place with 20 additional kids (or more) running around. For Alex's birthday, we have to invite the entire class. He doesn't really care for one boy and asked, "Why do I have to invite T--?" I'm hoping that less than half will show up! He wants to have a Jurassic World themed party, even though he hasn't seen the movie. I guess that's fine?

He's really happy I gave him some Pokemon cards.

German hospitals

I am at the moment sitting in the waiting room with David so that he can be put on IV antibiotics for his sore throat. The ENT sent him here because she was worried about his breathing with how badly his throat was swollen because of the infection. I think she was also worried that the infection was so bad that he might go septic. Great start to week two of Melissa's vacation.

As you may remember, I had a very good experience with Alex's ENT when they removed his adenoids and put tubes in his ears. Unfortunately, they are closed this week. So I called the referral on their answering service, and they were surgeons, so they gave me another referral. Yesterday I took Livvy to that ENT, and it was absolutely no nonsense, easy to get antibiotics, and probably cost less than my copay. Today David needed to go, and she took one look at him and sent him here, to Helios kliniken, about a mile and a half away from our house.

It is intimidating because of the language barrier and the general culture of no customer service whatsoever. The woman at the information both told us to walk to Brauchzentrum. They told us to go to HNO. HNO ignored us for ten minutes, and then told us to go down the hall and sit in the waiting room, which is already populated with 4 other patients. The prescription that the doctor wrote said, "Please put him on IV antibiotics (specific type)." That's all it said, other than his diagnosis, which appears to be peritonsillitis, or something to that effect. Of course, nothing will be done in a hurry here. We will be in the dark up to and including when they discharge him. The doctors are all fluent in English and usually very kind, but too busy to communicate, as you could imagine. They have inexpensive healthcare here for sure, but they don't seem to care very much about their patients.

That's probably not true. They don't seem to care if their patients are in pain or suffering if they can't do anything about it, but generally I think they want to see you get well. They're just very matter-of-fact about suffering.

Oh by the way, while we're sitting here right now, my stomach is cramping and I'm feeling sick. Last night I vomited up everything I had possibly eaten yesterday. Livvy was also sick last night. Melissa is currently at home with the kids. I surely feel bad for her. We had all these great plans and haven't been able to carry out a single one of them. In fact, I should be calling Edelweiss Lodge right now and cancelling our reservation. It's just that David wants to go to Oktoberfest so bad that he's not ready to give up on it. I imagine I will lose a night's stay over this. Hopefully not, and hopefully no more than that. Time will tell.

...Doktor G. walked in with his white coat and his white shoes with green alligators and rapid-fired some questions in German to David, who looked at me weakly for help. I asked the doctor to speak English, but I still needed to be there to handle some interpretation. The doctor got out this long skinny tool and started cleaning it. It looked ominous to me, but he mostly just used it to gag David and look down his throat. His conclusion, after prodding and poking for ten minutes, was that David needs an IV antibiotic, and they would get him a bed. They would look at him again later to see if he will need a tonsillectomy, after all.

That was an hour ago. For some reason, I thought this part would go a bit faster, after the doctor verified that a bed was indeed needed. David and I are sitting in the waiting room kind of quietly. What's to be said? My stomach is still unsettled, although I've only gotten sick once since being here. We were able to cancel our reservation at Edelweiss Lodge without a charge, provided I can get a doctor's note.

After 5 hours of being here, David is in a private room.  I hope the insurance covers it like normal.  I won't know until I submit the claim and get it approved or rejected.  One of the doctors laughed and said, "What did the doctor tell you? You'll be here for 4 or 5 days." Surprise, surprise!

Man, the last 2.5 weeks have been pretty terrible for us. I'm waiting for things to get better. I know they will, but I'd certainly like it to happen sooner rather than later.  Once again, I'm thankful for my friends and family back home who encourage and pray for me, and for my friends here who help when I really need it.  I'll tell you, I know some good people.  Thank God for you all.  Please keep praying for us!