This morning I had a doctor appointment. Actually, I had a nurse appointment and a doctor appointment. First, I met with the nurse for her "asthma clinic." About two years ago I was diagnosed with asthma (Basically, I told my doctor at an unrelated appointment that I wheezed during exercise and she gave me an inhaler. End of story.). So when I told the nurse, upon registering with Britain's National Health Service, that I was on Combivent she nearly fell out of her chair. She kept saying it was "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut." LOL. I tried to explain that the first inhaler I was given gave me heart palpatations and made me very jittery, so another doctor prescribed this one at the start of the summer and it's been fine. She was beside herself and insisted I come to her asthma clinic. So today, in addition to a little bloodwork because of my pretty bad cancer and heart attack genes, she gave me a brochure on asthma and a new inhaler. Yay.
Then I went in to see the doctor. Actually, the only things I needed her for were to sign the prescription for the inhaler and to re-prescribe me another regular medication. No problem, right? Wrong. Once again that whole "separated by a common language" thing comes into play here. First off, they don't have the same brand name here for the medicine. Secondly, the ONLY thing I negelected to take with me to the appointment (actually, I threw it out) was the slip that comes in the pack describing the exact dosage of the medicine. SO, after about 30 seconds in her office, the doctor examines the medication and sends me to the pharmacy which she says has a computer that looks up international prescription information. It should tell her what the corresponding drug is in the UK and she can then prescribe it.
So I head over to Boots to get my inhaler and find out the name of the medicine here. Three people try to find it before one woman finds what looks like the right thing. Again, the only problem is that I have nothing to indicate the strength of the drugs, so there's no way to tell if their pill with the same drugs is really the same (might be weaker or stronger). So she jots down a few notes that should help the doctor if I can find the strength. After scouring our flat for the package insert, I come to the library and get online. I know they have a web site, and I simply look up the info. I IM Andrew to print it out and we're all set. Now I just have to take the information to the surgery (that's the doctor's office) and get the prescription.
The funniest part of going to the doctor here was leaving. I'm so used to having to check out and fork over some cash for a doctor visit. I actually did ask the receptionist on the way out of there was anything else I needed to do. She smiled very nicely and told me I was free to go. Heh!
In other news, I start work at the Bodleian tomorrow. Actually, tomorrow is mostly paperwork and stuff. I don't really start until at least Wednesday. But tomorrow is my first paid day, so it counts. I'll be filling out lots of forms and such. Hopefully, I will know how to do so in most cases. Those first day forms and things are always so interesting. You always get asked all sorts of things that make you go, "wait a minute, I know the answer to that! Don't tell me!". It should be a nice, relaxed way to start.
Posted by Erin at October 28, 2002 10:09 AM