Daily: Doctor, Doctor!

Today, I went to a general practitioner for the first time in the UK. And the good doctor told me that I was allergic to London.

Since I’ve moved here, I wake up every morning feeling as if someone socked me between the eyes. Marty swears his innocence. Then I sneeze continuously for about 30 minutes. Then sometimes I feel better, other times I don’t and continue sneezing and oozing mucus down to the back of my throat. Yeah, I know. Gross.

This morning I felt particularly bad and the pressure my sinuses persisted to the afternoon. I’d had about enough of this, but I was fearful of the pain in the neck socialized medicine was supposed to be. I didn’t want to deal with any flack about not having any bills in my name to prove residence, and wait for months to get an appointment. I knew I’d have to call about a billion people to find out where I was supposed to go and who could help me.

But I just got a new mobile phone plan that allows me to call landlines for free, so I thought well, I guess it’s worth spending the entire afternoon on the phone to figure this mess out. I’ll eventually need the doctor for something, so I should get it all straight when it’s not an emergency.

Turns out that I was right about having to call a billion people, but wrong on the other counts. I was lucky enough to get right into an appointment about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. They accepted bills with Marty’s name on them, plus my passport, and our marriage license as proof of eligibility for the National Health Service.

The nurse took a urine sample, checked my blood pressure, and told me I had two kilograms (5 lbs.) of extra weight on me. Then I said, “Yeah, in all the right places!” And we high-fived and sassily snapped our fingers. (Note: We didn’t really high-five, but it would have been hilarious. Actually, she told me I need to start an exercise routine, and I agreed.)

Here, you need to make separate appointments with the nurse and the doctor.

The receptionist told me that the doctor rarely has an open appointment right after the nurse, but today he did. I got in with no wait. He was a very disinterested Indian man who looked like he’d rather be at home than looking up my nose. So, the same as in The States.

After 10 minutes of looking at my nose and throat, he told me that I had allergies and prescribed some anti-histamine pills and nose spray without really explaining what I was supposed to do with them. Again, same as at home.

I went to the local Chemist on the way home and picked up the prescriptions. They only cost £10 for the two of them. So, much cheaper than at home. Plus they were very helpful with how to take the medicines, so that was cool.

The whole process, including the calling around, took a little more than 4 hours. Not bad, really. And it was free, which is great. But I’m thinking that if I was in Chicago, they would have been much more thorough with finding out the root of the problem. I probably would have gotten some kind of blood test to see exactly what I was allergic too, not just “London.” London’s air pollution is much worse than Chicago’s, so that could be affecting me. But I did get some kick ass nose spray, so you can add that to your list of Reasons Megan Does Not Sit At the Cool Table.

Here’s something very different than in America*. Women are not recommended to start getting regular pap smears until they are 25 years old, instead of the 18 years old. And even then they say you only need one every 5 years, instead of every six months to a year. The nurse, who seemed to be trying to play the part of a women’s health care advocate, said the difference lies in who is paying for the appointment. Apparently NHS doesn’t want to pay doctors to just check for things that could be wrong. Wait till you can recognize something’s wrong, and then come in. Very English thinking.

*Just by the by-- Everyone calls The United States “America” here, ignoring that there are two other countries in North America alone, not to mention several others in Central and South America. Hence the plural phrase The Americas. I do it too now.