An Apple A Day...

I’m pretty impressed with myself for going 9 months without needing to go to the doctor. I could’ve gone longer but I needed a prescription refilled. I wasn’t really sure how to choose a GP (general practitioner) for myself so I went for sheer convenience. There is a “surgery” just across the street from the hospital and close enough to the apartment. I don’t know why clinics are called surgeries here. There are no actual surgeries performed there. This one, much like most surgeries, is a house converted into a clinic. My new GP, Diarmud O’Connell, is like a million years old and limps. I can’t be too mad because he basically just did what I told him to do. He said he figured he should probably check me out as long as I was there. My “check up” consisted of a blood pressure check and a urinalysis...that’s it. He said I should have the same done yearly. The whole urine dipstick test thing seems to be an Irish medical system phenomenon. Every admission we get at work gets one, no matter what they are admitted for. Apparently it’s the same in adult care. I’m not sure what the point is...is there really a high incidence of asymptomatic UTIs here?! The dipstick doesn’t even really tell you anything exciting. The main reason for my visit was to get my Hepatitis A Vaccine booster. He didn’t have any at the office so he wrote me a prescription which the “chemist” next door filled for me. He told me just to come back with it and he would administer it to me. I think I’ll save some cash and have somebody at work do it. The visit cost me 50 euros (I’m telling you...universal health care doesn’t mean free health care). It’s alright for healthy people who only have to go to the doctor a couple times a year, it’s cheaper than paying monthly for health insurance. I imagine it’s not great for people with chronic illnesses. Between work and my GP visit, I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to the healthcare system here.