The Crying Game

Last night Kahlil started coughing pretty hard. It was very unsettling. He also didn't really sleep from 1:30 to 4 am. I spent most of that time trying to convince him it was time to sleep. Needless to say none of us were in the best mood in the morning.

Jay and I decided we need to get Kahlil in to see a doctor for the cough. I called the doctors the YMCA creche recommended but since it's Sunday they were closed. There were other numbers on the answering machine so we gave one of those a call. Jay got the address and a general description of where we were going. We decided to drive and got cleaned up and ready to go.

Once we got out of the city center (not an insignificant task) finding the address was pretty easy. We parked and headed for the door. As we were walking up, a woman with two kids rang the buzzer on the door next to where we were headed. A man popped his head out and asked if we were looking for the doctor. We all said yes, so he let all of us in and told us to wait in the waiting room. At first Jay thought we might be in the wrong place, but it was the place.

There were no forms to fill out or proof of insurance requested. After the woman with the two girls was served, we were called in. We went into an office - not an examination room. The doctor asked us what the issue was. We told him it was a cough and that Kahlil had been running a fever for a couple days. The doctor pulled out a stethoscope and listened to Kahlil's chest and back. He said, yes there is a wheezing sound and I'll give you a prescription for antibiotics. Not the same treatment I would expect in Corvallis since we typically try to stay away from antibiotics unless is it really warranted. But Kahlil needs something and I'm hoping this will make a difference.

Then it came time to pay. The doctor wrote up a receipt and handed it to me. I looked a little confused and asked how I should pay. He now looked as confused as me. At this point the only information they had was Kahlil's name - no phone number, address or parent name. I asked if I needed to call on Monday to arrange payment. He said no and asked if we had cash. We were 10 euros short and they couldn't take a credit card. We asked if there was an ATM near. He called out the phone operator and she gave us directions to the ATM and sent us on our way. After getting the cash, Jay paid our doctor debt.

As we were driving away, Jay said he felt like the whole operation wasn't quite legal and that we could have walked out without paying if we were that type of people. But we aren't. Now we have the medicine and I hope to see some improvement soon.

In any event, we didn't make it to Newgrange today as we planned. Bummer! But the GREAT news is that Jay got internet service on the desktop computer. So now I'll have access during the day. Yeah!!!