a day of doc appts

i feel like an old person....well, no not really, but my schedule today was one of an old person... it was filled with doctors appointments.

nothing wrong, just trying to make use of my new health insurance plan.

Dentist
i switched dentists, my last dentist isn't in my plan. my new dentist came to me as a recommendation. she was nice, spoke little english, but we made it work. she cleaned my teeth. first with an annoying ultra sonic water-pick like thing. it bothered me so much i told her to stop. uff the sensation of nails on a chalk board went right through me. next she cleaned my teeth and then gave me a referral to get an x-ray taken at another office. the appointment was included in my insurance so i didn't need to pay.

Contact Lenses
while walking up santa fe avenue i stopped in just about every eye glass place looking for new specs and contacts. i stopped in one place and got a quote on contacts. (insurance doesn't cover these). i have a astigmatism in one eye, so those contacts are a little more expensive. so, for 6 contacts for my astigmatism eye it was 340 pesos ($89) and 6 contacts for my other eye 195 pesos ($51); i was just shopping around.

Eye Doctor again and contact lenes
i already went to the eye doctor last week. i saw an older woman doctor who didn't speak english. she was sort of strange. when she took my glasses off she used a machine to examine them to get my prescription and then handed them back to me all smudged up. so, i asked her to clean them and she gave me a strange look. then she asked me to lean forward to examine my eyes and instead of telling me 'ok' she gave me a slight shove back in the chair! sheesh no bed side manners there.

so, today, i went to another place that sells eye glasses and asked for a price on contacts. the man took my name, i sat down and then was called right away. a woman asked me for all my info and i told her that i didn't need a doctor i just wanted a price. she told me to take a seat in the other waiting room. then a young doctor came out to get me, we walked into a eye examination room and i told him i just wanted a price on contacts and that i already saw a doctor and gave him the prescription. he said ok and motioned to the chair, took out my contacts and examined my eyes. my spanish isn't the best, but i was able to make this clear...why didn't he want to understand me?

so, he examined my eyes, handed me off to another older doctor who spoke english to me. he put in a new pair of lens, examined my eyes and gave me a price for the same lenses i found earlier in the day but his price was double (over 1000 pesos). when i gave the older doctor my earlier quote he looked stunned (maybe because he was caught giving me the ol' foreigner fee, eh?) he couldn't' come up with a reason so he just said, yes it's cheaper.

allllllllll that and i just left, without contacts and without paying either (i guess all the fuss was covered by my insurance?) (wait, i did leave with a new pair of contacts in.) i didn't mind so much wasting the time, the young doctor was cute.

more doctors
i went into 'hospital aleman' to ask for a recommendation on an english speaking doctor but ended up there for 3 hours....

so, in spanish i asked the front desk for an english speaking doctor. a doctor was right next to me and asked why i wanted to see one. i told her what i needed and she told me i needed to see two different doctors. (in the states one family doctor could have done the job)

so, then the guy at the front desk handed me over to another lady who handed me over to another and then another lady. i gave my plan medico card and she scheduled two appointments at this time. the first doctor i saw didn't speak any english, and then the second doctor spoke english to me. the doctor visits were included in my plan. i did have to pay 160 pesos for the yellow fever and typhoid vaccination. the injection itself was included in the insurance plan.

glasses
on my walk home, only a couple blocks from my apartment i found a new pair of glasses that i love! pretty funny since i walked pretty much all of florida (a pedestrian street) and all of santa fe (a long avenue) and i found them right around the corner. the other day i fell in love with a pair of dolce&gabbana glasses on florida street but they're 2400 pesos ($631) ouch! the ones i found today are just as super cute and they'll be around 600 pesos ($162)...but i forgot to ask if i get a discount since i have insurance...so maybe they'll be less? (the price is with the lenses and an anti reflective material on them)

over all going to the doctor here is similar to the states, unless i've been away from the states for too long that i've become accustom to the ways here. for the most part i always spoke spanish (because i wanted to) but on some occasions when i didn't understand i was surprised that the doctors didn't speak much english. on one occasion the doctor left the room to get another doctor to explain something, so my recommendation, if you live in b.a. and want to see a doctor, either know spanish or take someone with you who does. you'll get by with basic spanish.