When you get re-al-ly sick in a foreign country | Sairastuminen Saksanmaalla

There can be few better times to start appreciating ones health than when sitting in a hospital waiting room waiting for the fifth (?) doctor's opinion on the infection going on in your cheek/gum area. The initial cause for everything was a tooth. The first doctor wanted to remove it and force-sell me an implant for 2-3k. This diagnosis was given through mere feeling of the area, no xrays of the problem area per se were taken. The second one was ready to save the tooth by performing a special root canalling, but that would cost 700 euros. At that point I was already hitting a fever so high that the appropriate place to drag myself was hospital. An xray of the specific cheek/tooth area was taken, and the doctors did exactly what the expensive dentist would have done, just almost free of cost. Fun fact in the middle of a crisis: my dentist was definitely younger than me, first times for everything... I was also sent to a surgeon, who (relievingly) did not end up waving any instruments near my tissues though. Two days later I was still feverish and went back to the clinic. After an authentic House moment the doctor _discovered_ I have to be allergic to the antibiotics the first dentist had prescribed me. And I'm already allergic to one type of antibiotic meant for that area. I got a prescription for new antibiotics and ever since it's been a bit better. But it will still take some time.

 However I'm so happy to be able to go to work tomorrow. It's pretty tiring to just sweat and maybe hallucinate every once in a while. And since bureaucracy has a central place in German life I first had to spend a small eternity waiting for a temporary "krankenkasse" document as my health insurance card was not ready yet. Because without a health insurance number (indicated in the document) you don't excist for doctors here. And the insurance guy could not send me the document because my social security number (a-ha, a different number that is) was missing. They should have got it from the company I work in. And the reason the company didn't have it and therefore hadn't sent it was... *drums* the fact that I didn't have a health insurance number. See a fine pattern of inconsistency? This is what I call German loopholes. Well, it might have made me age some years in a couple of days, but it did get sorted finally. Like usually in Germany. The expression "how the hell" was springing into my brain more than once during last week, but what I did realise was that you can get sick and get treated, regardless the severity of your condition, in this country too. The process works like in Finland (minus the bureaucracy) and I can't just keep on thinking nothing will ever happen to me because I'm not home. I guess I needed to experience that I am safe here too.

Leaving the sickbed, boom

Terkkuja siis lasaretin puolelta! Vihdoin siis tapahtui se myyttinen asia että sairastuin ihan kunnolla Saksassa. Hampaan juuri ja poskikudos ja vissiin ontelokin vielä tulehtui, sain kunnon kuumeen ja koin kaksi karua hammaslääkärien myyntimieshetkeä. Osta implantti, osta erikoiskäsittely. Lopulta ratkaisu löytyi sairaalasta pään alueen sairauksien (heh heh kuka yllättyi) poliklinikalta. Siellä hellyttävä nuori mieslääkäri (siis minua nuorempi) hoisi saman homman puoli-ilmaiseksi kuin kallis spesialisti olisi hoitanut seitsemällä sadalla. Antibiootit ei silti vieneet kuumetta pois, joten jouduin vielä asioimaan klinikalla uudestaan samalla asialla. Selvisi, että olen allerginen tuolle antibiootille, ja siksi sain kuumeen alkujaankin. Uudet antibiootit sitten nitistivät kuumeen. Eipähän tarvi olla toista viikkoa töistä poissa. Ehti tulla jo ikävä työkavereita. Homman tuoksinnassa pääsi myös tappelemaan byrokratian kanssa. Sosiaaliturvanumero ja sairausvakuutusnumero ovat ehdottomia, mutta toista ei oikein saa ilman toista. Ja kukaan ei myönnä olevansa se eka linkki koko projektissa, jossa näitä numeroita ja väliaikaisia todistuksia haetaan. No, lopulta varmaan tänkin homman oleellisin opetus on, että tässä maassa on aika samanlaista sairastua ja tulla hoidetuksi kuin Suomessa. Väkisinhän tämänkin joskus piti tapahtua.