it was bound to happen
Mar. 16th, 2012 04:02 pmTuesday evening I noticed Gwen was coughing a bit, and then when she slept for 12 hours straight I figured she was getting a bit ill. Wednesday morning she was coughing more, a rather watery cough, but wasn't congested and didn't seem to be feeling badly, so I took her off to daycare. When I handed her over to Sabine and she asked how Gwen was doing, I said she had a bit of a cough but didn't seem too bad. And Gwen obligingly went "cough, cough", and then grinned at Sabine. When I picked her up that evening she was getting a bit of a runny nose and was a bit more congested, but still wasn't obviously feeling badly at all. She had been eating and sleeping just fine, too, which was reassuring. Yesterday, though, when we both woke up, we were both feeling pretty miserable (no cough for me, but I'd had a sore throat since Wed. morning), and even though she'd slept through the night again (11.5 hours!), Joel said he had to go up and replace her pacifier after coughing fits more frequently. I was of two minds whether we'd make it out to campus in the afternoon; unfortunately, I was scheduled to give a talk at 14:15 and needed to get out early enough to finish my slides for it. When I first woke up, I wasn't sure I was even going to be able to give a talk, my throat hurt so badly. But as the morning progressed we both started feeling better, so off we went.
I checked my phone after the session was over (mine was the first of three talks), to find a voicemail from Laura at daycare saying that Gwen was getting sicker and I might want to consider taking her to a doctor. (Dutch people are rather hospital/dr. avoidant, so this recommendation meant something.) At this point it was only half an hour before I would've picked her up anyway, so I hurried over, and she was really pretty miserable looking; lots of sinus drainage which would cause her to cough and choke and then cough harder, and it was pretty sad. But she still hasn't run a fever at all, and is still sleeping and eating well, which is reassuring. When I picked her up she buried her face in my shoulder (and started chewing on my coat lapel), and calmed down some. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day out (sunny and 17!) but I just didn't feel up to walking home so we headed out to the bus. Even sick, she still had plenty of smiles for me:

And then on the bus she smiled and flirted and shrieked with a young girl with Down's syndrome in a wheel chair.
It took her about half an hour to settle down to sleep because of the coughing, but once she fell asleep she slept straight through until morning again (excepting regular pacifier replacements due to coughing fits), but she was pretty bad this morning -- at one point she was coughing so hard she couldn't breathe and her face turned pink and I was getting worried. Our huisarts (GP) makes same-day appointments if you call between 8:00 and 9:00 so I figured as soon as 8:00 came around I'd call.
We'd registered with this huisarts back in early Dec., soon after we'd moved here (but not soon enough for me to get in to see a dr. when I had mastitis), so I didn't expect this to be an issue. But then I call, "My four month old daughter is sick and I'd like a doctor to look at her", and I give them Gwen's birthdate...and they have no record of her. So I give them mine...no evidence that we're registered with them. I tell them we came in and registered in Dec. Gave them my name. Spelled it twice, both with English vowels and with Dutch. Nope. No record of us at all. So I ask if it would still be possible for me to make an appointment, since I sure thought we were registered with them and my daughter is sick! I've been recommended to take her to a doctor! She's four months old! Nope, sorry, you'll have to call someone else.
Now, luckily there's another practice a block away from that one (your huisarts has to be within a certain distance of your house), so I looked them up online, and called to see if they were accepting new patients. They were, so as soon as Gwen woke up, we headed over.
Yes, they're accepting new patients. BUT what is one of the things you need to fill in when you register? Your health insurance company and client number. The health insurance which you are legally required to have in the Netherlands. The health insurance that I have been trying to get since December. The health insurance which kept writing me threatening to cancel my application if we didn't send them copies of our (at the time non-existent) residence permits. The health insurance that I sent copies of our residence permits of almost two weeks ago, and still have not yet heard from. So before I even tried to broach that issue, I asked if it would be at all possible for us to get in to see the doctor that day, because I had a sick four month old (I even took Gwen out of the stroller and picked her up so the secretary could hear her cough and sniffle). No dice. Lots of doctors only work half days (mornings) on Fridays. This practice had only one doctor that was there today, and there would be no way that I could get in to see him. She did say that perhaps I could get squeezed in and he could listen to her lungs with a stethoscope to see if she had an infection, but after she rung the doctor to ask, she said that wasn't possible, because I guess when they're so young you can't tell just from a stethoscope if there's a lung infection or not. So what am I supposed to do??? At this point, it's now late enough in the morning that it's too late to call other places to make a same day appointment, and since we're not registered with these other places I'd have to deal with the whole insurance rigmarole with them. There's an after hours number you can call when your huisarts is not on duty, and so I figured I'd just wait until the practice that I thought we were registered with closed at noon and then I'd call the after hours number.
Luckily, by that time, Gwen seemed to be feeling better; she'd had a number of good naps, a couple of bottles, and hadn't had any bad coughing spells. I drew a hot bath and we sat for awhile in the bathroom with the steam, and then after another nap we went and took a slow walk around outside because it was really sunny and nice out. She's still pretty sick but she hasn't gotten any worse, and since there's no fever, she's still sleeping well, and still eating well, and she hasn't had another spell where she couldn't breathe, I guess we're back to just waiting it out.
It's been four months and this is the first time either of us have gotten sick, for which I should be (and am) very grateful. But it's frustrating that for as well designed as the Dutch healthcare system is, it only really works if you're already in it. If you're not, good luck trying to find anyone who will take a look at your sick! four month old! baby!
I checked my phone after the session was over (mine was the first of three talks), to find a voicemail from Laura at daycare saying that Gwen was getting sicker and I might want to consider taking her to a doctor. (Dutch people are rather hospital/dr. avoidant, so this recommendation meant something.) At this point it was only half an hour before I would've picked her up anyway, so I hurried over, and she was really pretty miserable looking; lots of sinus drainage which would cause her to cough and choke and then cough harder, and it was pretty sad. But she still hasn't run a fever at all, and is still sleeping and eating well, which is reassuring. When I picked her up she buried her face in my shoulder (and started chewing on my coat lapel), and calmed down some. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day out (sunny and 17!) but I just didn't feel up to walking home so we headed out to the bus. Even sick, she still had plenty of smiles for me:

And then on the bus she smiled and flirted and shrieked with a young girl with Down's syndrome in a wheel chair.
It took her about half an hour to settle down to sleep because of the coughing, but once she fell asleep she slept straight through until morning again (excepting regular pacifier replacements due to coughing fits), but she was pretty bad this morning -- at one point she was coughing so hard she couldn't breathe and her face turned pink and I was getting worried. Our huisarts (GP) makes same-day appointments if you call between 8:00 and 9:00 so I figured as soon as 8:00 came around I'd call.
We'd registered with this huisarts back in early Dec., soon after we'd moved here (but not soon enough for me to get in to see a dr. when I had mastitis), so I didn't expect this to be an issue. But then I call, "My four month old daughter is sick and I'd like a doctor to look at her", and I give them Gwen's birthdate...and they have no record of her. So I give them mine...no evidence that we're registered with them. I tell them we came in and registered in Dec. Gave them my name. Spelled it twice, both with English vowels and with Dutch. Nope. No record of us at all. So I ask if it would still be possible for me to make an appointment, since I sure thought we were registered with them and my daughter is sick! I've been recommended to take her to a doctor! She's four months old! Nope, sorry, you'll have to call someone else.
Now, luckily there's another practice a block away from that one (your huisarts has to be within a certain distance of your house), so I looked them up online, and called to see if they were accepting new patients. They were, so as soon as Gwen woke up, we headed over.
Yes, they're accepting new patients. BUT what is one of the things you need to fill in when you register? Your health insurance company and client number. The health insurance which you are legally required to have in the Netherlands. The health insurance that I have been trying to get since December. The health insurance which kept writing me threatening to cancel my application if we didn't send them copies of our (at the time non-existent) residence permits. The health insurance that I sent copies of our residence permits of almost two weeks ago, and still have not yet heard from. So before I even tried to broach that issue, I asked if it would be at all possible for us to get in to see the doctor that day, because I had a sick four month old (I even took Gwen out of the stroller and picked her up so the secretary could hear her cough and sniffle). No dice. Lots of doctors only work half days (mornings) on Fridays. This practice had only one doctor that was there today, and there would be no way that I could get in to see him. She did say that perhaps I could get squeezed in and he could listen to her lungs with a stethoscope to see if she had an infection, but after she rung the doctor to ask, she said that wasn't possible, because I guess when they're so young you can't tell just from a stethoscope if there's a lung infection or not. So what am I supposed to do??? At this point, it's now late enough in the morning that it's too late to call other places to make a same day appointment, and since we're not registered with these other places I'd have to deal with the whole insurance rigmarole with them. There's an after hours number you can call when your huisarts is not on duty, and so I figured I'd just wait until the practice that I thought we were registered with closed at noon and then I'd call the after hours number.
Luckily, by that time, Gwen seemed to be feeling better; she'd had a number of good naps, a couple of bottles, and hadn't had any bad coughing spells. I drew a hot bath and we sat for awhile in the bathroom with the steam, and then after another nap we went and took a slow walk around outside because it was really sunny and nice out. She's still pretty sick but she hasn't gotten any worse, and since there's no fever, she's still sleeping well, and still eating well, and she hasn't had another spell where she couldn't breathe, I guess we're back to just waiting it out.
It's been four months and this is the first time either of us have gotten sick, for which I should be (and am) very grateful. But it's frustrating that for as well designed as the Dutch healthcare system is, it only really works if you're already in it. If you're not, good luck trying to find anyone who will take a look at your sick! four month old! baby!