Our First (and Hopefully Only) Doctor's Visit

On Tuesday, Will had a fever of 101.  While he responded well to Ibuprofen, it lingered into the next morning.  Add to that his complaint that his throat hurt and I got worried.  This was the first sign of sickness any of us have felt while here.  (Remarkable, I know!)  With the Bash family visiting, and our upcoming ski trip this weekend, I decided to be proactive and get him in to see a doctor.

Since we have not navigated this before, I sent a message to our friends, Hortence and Yann. Within the hour, Hortence had scheduled an appointment for me with the pediatrician they used while living in Paris.  This was so incredibly generous of her, for gone was the worry of how to go about doing this.  Jeff and I both decided to take him to his 2:30 appointment to see what "doctoring" is like in Paris.  

This doctor works in a neighborhood similar to the one we live in.  Instead of his office being in a clinic like in the US, it is on the ground floor of an apartment building.  When you make the appointment, you are given the door code to the building and told what floor and apartment to go to. 

When we arrived at the building, Jeff and I got confused by the outside box to enter the code.  Luckily, a nice older gentleman came up at the same time and helped us.  It turned out that this was the doctor Will was going to see.  He then escorted us into the office.

Heading to the doctor.

The receptionist immediately gestured for us to sit in the living room to wait.  We were surprised that there was no paperwork to fill out, no cards to turn over, and no money exchanged hands.  The doctor then came and got us within 5 minutes.

A quick, yet comfortable wait.

We walked back to his office and sat down across from him at his desk.  He asked us a few questions about Will and we briefly told him some of his unique history, as well as his current symptoms.  He then asked Will to come with him to the room next door, that was a small examine room about the size of a large closet.

I have never sat across from a doctor at a desk before.

Will undressed and he proceeded to examine him, much like they do in the US.  (As a side note, Will has grown 10 centimeters while here!)  Then, and this was the amazing part, he did a strep test and a flu test and analyzed them both himself, right in front of us.  After he swabbed for both, he took out a small chemistry set and did the mixing.  (Luckily both came back negative.)  Once it was determined that Will just had a cold, he got dressed and we met with the doctor back at his desk.

Double checking that Will did not have the flu.

He plotted Will's height and weight for us and then asked if we had gotten the flu shot this year.  I embarrassingly said we had not and he encouraged us to still do it.  I immediately said we were interested.  He said he could fit us in tomorrow.  He then wrote out a prescription for the flu vaccines for both Edy and Will.  When I asked him what I did with the prescriptions, he said I was to take them to the pharmacy to buy the flu vaccine.  I then was to bring the shots back to the office the next day for him to administer.  

He then asked how we would like to pay.  When we inquired if he took credit card, he pulled out the little machine, swiped our card, and printed out a bill.  He also volunteered to filled out a form so that we could submit it to our US insurance.  The entire visit was 100 euros.  He encouraged us to come anytime tomorrow to do the shots, then walked us out to the front desk.  

Merci beaucoup!

Heading out to the lobby!  Check out all filing system.

After we thanked him for his time, Jeff took Will home, while I went to visit the pharmacy across the street to get the flu vaccine.  I showed the two prescriptions to the technician.  She went to the back and got two boxes of the shot.  She handed them to me and said they were 10 euros each.  She didn't take the prescription, nor did she add labels to the boxes with the kids' names.  She just took my money and said "Au revoir."

Waiting in line at the pharmacy.

The prescriptions.

The vaccines!

Then yesterday, Jeff took both kids back for their shots.  According to both kids, the shots didn't hurt at all.  Hmmmmm....

So that was our first, and hopefully, only doctor's visit this year.  I feel grateful to Hortence for introducing me to this doctor.  I feel like if something more urgent were to occur, I have somewhere to take him.