So I have always wanted to write about my experiences with Greek Hospitals, in fact I have done it many times talking to myself (don't worry I'm not crazy I don't actually talk out loud). I would really love it if someone invented a little microchip you could implant in your brain and you could say "Start Blog post" and talk to yourself (mentally) and it would write everything down for you and automatically publish it, wouldn't that be so awesome!
So back to all About Greek Hospitals, I'm writing now because we spent all day yesterday in the Hospital for Katerina, she has been feeling chest pains when she wakes up in the mornings, it has happened twice and then on Tuesday at school a boy hit her in the chest and it was hurting her all afternoon and into the night, so we took her to the hospital.
My first experience with a Greek Hospital was on my Wedding Day, funny right, I had to go in for blood test and a chest X-ray so I could have legal papers at the Taverna that my husband owns, just in case the food police stop by, they know I am disease free.
There ARE NO Appointments in Hospitals, you just show up and whoever is first gets served first, but the fantastic thing about children is that there aren't many in the hospital. But if your an old person then you will have one hell of a wait. We saw the Pediatrician right away, she did a cardiologist test and a blood test, then we waited for the "head" Pediatrician to come in and take a look at Katerina. Kat did a great job with the first doctor, but she wanted nothing to do with the second, this was of course after a 2 hour wait, so I'm pretty sure it was just pain and exhaustion on her part. She was freaking out and screaming and well it did not go well, Arthur kind of held her down as I tried to help the doctor listen to her heart, breath and etc. Thank fully the next step went much better after I carried her through the maze of the hospital to have a chest X-Ray.
Now here is the nice part of Greek People, when you say it is for a kid, they will let you cut right in line, awesome right? The X-Ray area had about 20 people waiting, but since we needed it for a child they let us go straight to the front, but we still had to wait an hour for the film and I saw some old people pretty much get there's straight away, but I'm guessing they were more of a life or death situation since they looked pretty knocked out as they were wheeled into the X-ray room.
After the chest X-rays came back clean the Head Pediatrician told us we should go to the Private hospital and have her checked there as well.
We Paid Nothing at the Government Run Hospital.
So back to all About Greek Hospitals, I'm writing now because we spent all day yesterday in the Hospital for Katerina, she has been feeling chest pains when she wakes up in the mornings, it has happened twice and then on Tuesday at school a boy hit her in the chest and it was hurting her all afternoon and into the night, so we took her to the hospital.
My first experience with a Greek Hospital was on my Wedding Day, funny right, I had to go in for blood test and a chest X-ray so I could have legal papers at the Taverna that my husband owns, just in case the food police stop by, they know I am disease free.
There ARE NO Appointments in Hospitals, you just show up and whoever is first gets served first, but the fantastic thing about children is that there aren't many in the hospital. But if your an old person then you will have one hell of a wait. We saw the Pediatrician right away, she did a cardiologist test and a blood test, then we waited for the "head" Pediatrician to come in and take a look at Katerina. Kat did a great job with the first doctor, but she wanted nothing to do with the second, this was of course after a 2 hour wait, so I'm pretty sure it was just pain and exhaustion on her part. She was freaking out and screaming and well it did not go well, Arthur kind of held her down as I tried to help the doctor listen to her heart, breath and etc. Thank fully the next step went much better after I carried her through the maze of the hospital to have a chest X-Ray.
Now here is the nice part of Greek People, when you say it is for a kid, they will let you cut right in line, awesome right? The X-Ray area had about 20 people waiting, but since we needed it for a child they let us go straight to the front, but we still had to wait an hour for the film and I saw some old people pretty much get there's straight away, but I'm guessing they were more of a life or death situation since they looked pretty knocked out as they were wheeled into the X-ray room.
After the chest X-rays came back clean the Head Pediatrician told us we should go to the Private hospital and have her checked there as well.
We Paid Nothing at the Government Run Hospital.
But we were there from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm, and had 1 blood test, 1 cardiologist exam, and 1 X-ray.
At the Private Hospital in the same City (by the way we drove to Larissa an Hour drive since they have a better hospital than the one that is closer to us, plus Kat was born in Larissa, at the hospital that we just came from) It was our first time there, and it was pretty nice, there was actual parking available for the car so Nik and I hung out in the parking lot and played Hide and Seek and Arthur took Katerina inside for a visit with a different doctor and also to have an Ultra Sound and they also did another cardio test. It only took an hour at the Private Hospital but it did cost us money, 46 Euros, still a really good price, right?
So the end of this story is.... One of the only things I like about Greece is their almost free medical care, it is crazy!!! For Katerina's birth a Cesarean and 5 day stay in the hospital it only cost us 450euros.
2 comments:
Hi Mara, I suffer from Anxiety and it can become painful in the chest. It feels like there is an elephant sitting on you and it can be hard to pull in a decent breath of air though no-one can hear that you are having difficulty breathing. Life can be great and still, I get anxiety. There doesn't have to be a reason for it. I just thought this may be something else to consider when you see her doctor. Good luck with this, I hope she feels better.
check her GI tract. It could be esophagus pain. Could be stomach, like an ulcer. I had an ulcer that cause lots of pain close to the chest.
Seems like she's cleared for heart, so it's something. Kids don't make that stuff up... keep looking. Good luck. I found your blog by the way, when I was digging through my "circles" on google plus, which I do not understand! Glad to meet you, and I like your header here.
LeeAnna at not afraid of color
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