It had to happen eventually. I would run out of blood pressure pills while I was overseas and I'd have to see a local doctor. I was really careful not to let that happen in Baku, but I got a little slack with it since I am here in a nice modern country with good social medicine.
There is a cool website in Denmark where you can look up everything medical and health-wise...right down to the set prices of prescription and over the counter medicines. It lists all of the approved and available medications; and you can look up dental fees, too. It even breaks down wait times by hospital and clinic for specific surgeries or treatments, so you can decide where you might want to go. It's all very very efficient...but you can waste spend hours in there just browsing.
Anyway, I made an appointment, via email, a couple of weeks back and Friday was the big day. I think it's been a while since my blood pressure was last checked and typical for me, since I knew it would be checked at the end of the week, I ate a bunch of chicken nuggets at McDonald's , we barbecued hot dogs and sausages twice, and I made pork chops with the canned mushroom soup gravy the night before. Which just goes to show you that it is possible to live dangerously while not breaking the speed limit, or a sweat. Have some salt, already!
Like any new experience, you gotta learn the drill. Learning the drill in a foreign language has interesting moments and the trick is to learn it without appearing to be stupid. First rule of thumb when waiting your turn always direct your attention at the object upon which you are waiting. Daydreaming and gazing at the pictures on the wall will get you a "She's talking to you" from a stranger. I think it was told to me in Danish first but I was too busy with the art work to catch it.
The doctor's office is in a clinic of 3 doctors that occupies a ground floor apartment of a 4 story building. Instead of the waiting and reception area being at the front of the office it's at the back, so you have to wander a bit through some hallways in order to find it. There was a room with some chairs, and across the hall from that there was an office that looked like it was reception. I told the girl in there that I had an appointment (after I figured out she was talking to me) and she took me into the waiting room and showed me how to swipe my health card through this card reader gizmo that was mounted on the wall.
Lesson One....find the right entrance to building, enter, swipe card and take a seat.
I didn't get to take a seat this time because I no sooner had the card back in my wallet, than the doctor came looking for me. What? No clip board? No medical history in Danish? Where was my privacy statement to sign? Never mind that I wouldn't be able to fill out a Danish form anyway and there really isn't any privacy here. I know this because the government sent me a summons to come in for my mammogram. Come to think of it my first communication from the Danish government was the summons I got to come in for a pap test a month after I got here. That really creeped me out! I was so sure I had gotten this summons because I was living in a house registered to the sex trade.
So, the doctor turns out to be a petite gray haired lady wearing a turtleneck and no bra. She was very sweet. She took a smattering of information from me and entered it directly into her computer. I guess they are beyond the file folder here. It's also apparent that what happened to you before you came to Denmark isn't all that important because she pretty much only asked me the reason for my visit, and did I smoke. She asked me where I was from, about the kids, and what had brought me to Denmark. She then takes my blood pressure and it's 160/110!! WOW! That was the highest it had ever been.....ever! I saw my last chicken nugget flash before my eyes. Crap!
The doctor had me lie down on the exam table, told me to relax, and said she'd be back in a minute. I tried but was sure she had gone off to call the government to let them know I needed a saline monitor attached to my ankle. A few minutes later she's back and proceeds to take my blood pressure again. This time it's 130/80. Where it usually is...I'm not dying after all. I'm just chicken. Scared of little grey haired braless doctors in foreign countries! I can haz nuggetz! Okay, every now and again...
Prior to my appointment someone had told me that the doctor would send the prescription directly to the Apotek (pharmacy). But that didn't happen in my case. She printed a slip from her computer and I got to take it to the Apotek of my choice.
I chose the one at the Horsholm Mid-Punkt (central place), took my number as I entered and though I was 7 numbers back in the queue, I don't think I had to wait more than 10 minutes. Kind of a sweet set up. They sell some skin care products and first aid gear, so there was something to browse through while waiting. But the main focus is definitely pharmacy. There were 4 counters set up along the wall, each one manned by a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician (not sure which). Behind them was a big room full of people and drugs.....shelves and shelves of drugs...and lots of people, too.
When my turn came I handed the pharmacist my prescription and my health card. She swiped me again, told me to wait for a moment, then she disappeared into the shelves. A minute later she's back with my meds. They came pre-bottled, so she didn't have to count them out, 100 pills a container. One of them was in an old fashioned glass bottle. Her computer had printed out the little personal labels for the bottles, she stuck them on and handed them to me in a bag. That was quick and I didn't have to go back to pick them up. The best part was the price, though, I paid the equivalent of $60 for 2 kinds of BP medication that will last me more 3 months. That works out to ten bucks a month each! That's incredibly cheap. And no worries about the pills being made in some Chinese backwater factory. If they're not making Legos or blue cheese, the Danes are making pills and colostomy bags. Ladies your HRT is made less than 10 miles from my house. Medical manufacturing is a huge industry here....right up there with Carlsberg beer!
I suppose I should add a qualifier to all this excitement over reasonably priced drugs. This morning we dropped off our first ever load to the dry cleaners. Many of John's work pants were in dire need of a good pressing. My humble iron can only do so much once they've been washed at home enough times. We expected some sticker shock and were not disappointed. Twelve bucks a pair for a grand total of $72 for 6 pair of pants!
There is a cool website in Denmark where you can look up everything medical and health-wise...right down to the set prices of prescription and over the counter medicines. It lists all of the approved and available medications; and you can look up dental fees, too. It even breaks down wait times by hospital and clinic for specific surgeries or treatments, so you can decide where you might want to go. It's all very very efficient...but you can waste spend hours in there just browsing.
Anyway, I made an appointment, via email, a couple of weeks back and Friday was the big day. I think it's been a while since my blood pressure was last checked and typical for me, since I knew it would be checked at the end of the week, I ate a bunch of chicken nuggets at McDonald's , we barbecued hot dogs and sausages twice, and I made pork chops with the canned mushroom soup gravy the night before. Which just goes to show you that it is possible to live dangerously while not breaking the speed limit, or a sweat. Have some salt, already!
Like any new experience, you gotta learn the drill. Learning the drill in a foreign language has interesting moments and the trick is to learn it without appearing to be stupid. First rule of thumb when waiting your turn always direct your attention at the object upon which you are waiting. Daydreaming and gazing at the pictures on the wall will get you a "She's talking to you" from a stranger. I think it was told to me in Danish first but I was too busy with the art work to catch it.
The doctor's office is in a clinic of 3 doctors that occupies a ground floor apartment of a 4 story building. Instead of the waiting and reception area being at the front of the office it's at the back, so you have to wander a bit through some hallways in order to find it. There was a room with some chairs, and across the hall from that there was an office that looked like it was reception. I told the girl in there that I had an appointment (after I figured out she was talking to me) and she took me into the waiting room and showed me how to swipe my health card through this card reader gizmo that was mounted on the wall.
Lesson One....find the right entrance to building, enter, swipe card and take a seat.
I didn't get to take a seat this time because I no sooner had the card back in my wallet, than the doctor came looking for me. What? No clip board? No medical history in Danish? Where was my privacy statement to sign? Never mind that I wouldn't be able to fill out a Danish form anyway and there really isn't any privacy here. I know this because the government sent me a summons to come in for my mammogram. Come to think of it my first communication from the Danish government was the summons I got to come in for a pap test a month after I got here. That really creeped me out! I was so sure I had gotten this summons because I was living in a house registered to the sex trade.
So, the doctor turns out to be a petite gray haired lady wearing a turtleneck and no bra. She was very sweet. She took a smattering of information from me and entered it directly into her computer. I guess they are beyond the file folder here. It's also apparent that what happened to you before you came to Denmark isn't all that important because she pretty much only asked me the reason for my visit, and did I smoke. She asked me where I was from, about the kids, and what had brought me to Denmark. She then takes my blood pressure and it's 160/110!! WOW! That was the highest it had ever been.....ever! I saw my last chicken nugget flash before my eyes. Crap!
The doctor had me lie down on the exam table, told me to relax, and said she'd be back in a minute. I tried but was sure she had gone off to call the government to let them know I needed a saline monitor attached to my ankle. A few minutes later she's back and proceeds to take my blood pressure again. This time it's 130/80. Where it usually is...I'm not dying after all. I'm just chicken. Scared of little grey haired braless doctors in foreign countries! I can haz nuggetz! Okay, every now and again...
Prior to my appointment someone had told me that the doctor would send the prescription directly to the Apotek (pharmacy). But that didn't happen in my case. She printed a slip from her computer and I got to take it to the Apotek of my choice.
I chose the one at the Horsholm Mid-Punkt (central place), took my number as I entered and though I was 7 numbers back in the queue, I don't think I had to wait more than 10 minutes. Kind of a sweet set up. They sell some skin care products and first aid gear, so there was something to browse through while waiting. But the main focus is definitely pharmacy. There were 4 counters set up along the wall, each one manned by a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician (not sure which). Behind them was a big room full of people and drugs.....shelves and shelves of drugs...and lots of people, too.
When my turn came I handed the pharmacist my prescription and my health card. She swiped me again, told me to wait for a moment, then she disappeared into the shelves. A minute later she's back with my meds. They came pre-bottled, so she didn't have to count them out, 100 pills a container. One of them was in an old fashioned glass bottle. Her computer had printed out the little personal labels for the bottles, she stuck them on and handed them to me in a bag. That was quick and I didn't have to go back to pick them up. The best part was the price, though, I paid the equivalent of $60 for 2 kinds of BP medication that will last me more 3 months. That works out to ten bucks a month each! That's incredibly cheap. And no worries about the pills being made in some Chinese backwater factory. If they're not making Legos or blue cheese, the Danes are making pills and colostomy bags. Ladies your HRT is made less than 10 miles from my house. Medical manufacturing is a huge industry here....right up there with Carlsberg beer!
I suppose I should add a qualifier to all this excitement over reasonably priced drugs. This morning we dropped off our first ever load to the dry cleaners. Many of John's work pants were in dire need of a good pressing. My humble iron can only do so much once they've been washed at home enough times. We expected some sticker shock and were not disappointed. Twelve bucks a pair for a grand total of $72 for 6 pair of pants!
No comments:
Post a Comment