I guess I knew that we wouldn't be doing much at this appointment. I had also been forewarned by a few friends (one pregnant and others who had recently been through the experience) that they doubted that anything would be done at this appointment, but that if anything was looked at, I shouldn't worry too much about the results. (“Don't worry if they do an ultrasound and don't see anything. The equipment of the public system is so 3rd world-ish that they don't see anything until you're about 5 months along.”) The scary thing is that that reassurance actually made me feel better.
Of course, as I expected, nothing really happened at this appointment. Basically the entire appointment was dedicated to filling out paperwork, and to make me a “cartilla de embarazo” which will eventually be filled with dates and information about the various appointments and size of the developing baby. I find it quite ironic that this is done within the public medicine system, considering that they don't really do much of a following of how a baby develops. They basically just fill in their paperwork with the information brought to them from the private system.
Other than filling out the cartilla, she also took my blood pressure, which was uncharacteristically high for me (around 135/85). She reassured me, though, that it was still nothing to be worried about. I wasn't worried since I knew that it was reflecting the fact that I was still quite worried about how everything was moving along, despite the attempts at reassurance from the people around me. Not much was left to do except to give me information about when I should go in for my first public appointments. I was told to get an appointment for blood analysis work to be done between February 3-7. I was also supposed to get an appointment to get my first public ultrasound at the hospital around the 20th of February. So basically, what others had told me was accurate so far. If I were to stay within the public system only, nobody would even look at me until the end of the first trimester...
I could expect about one appointment per trimester, and not much more.
Well, at least one thing was nice. I had been reserved a half-hour apointment with the midwife, an unusually long appointment for the public system. Up until now, the longest appointment I had been alloted has been a 7 minute appointment with my doctor. (That is actually pretty nice too considering that at one point, when I first came here, I believe the average was 4 minute appointments).
At the end of the appointment, I was surprised by a gift. She handed me a box of promotional items, a gift for pregnant women from the “Mi Bebé y Yo” magazine.
Now, though, the fun was over...
Time to brave the administrative part of public health service...
My goal was to get three appointments:
1. one with my doctor to get a perscription for iodine
2. one for a blood analysis between Feb. 3-7
3. one at the hospital for around Feb. 20 for an ultrasound (but to be done before my Feb. 22 appointment with Socorro- who will give me the results of both the ultrasound and the analysis).
As usual, more easily said than done.
Line #1: Get an appointment with my doctor, for the anaysis, and change my address and phone number in the system...
This actually went better than expected as luckily there were few people waiting in line.
To get an appointment at the hospital, you need to get into another line...
So, I get into the hospital line...
Can I have your SIP? (health ID card)
Of course, my SIP's magnetic band has never worked, so that was giving a bit of a problem to get my appointment.
The other problem was that whoever set up my name in the health system (copied right off of my DNI- national ID card) took it upon themselves to decide that my middle name should be my first last name, and that my first last name should be my second last name, and that my second last name just shouldn't exist. So, that's how it was...
We can't make your appointment until you get yourself a new card...
Line number 3, new card...
Line number 4... back to the hospital appointment line, to find that I still can't make an appointment because even though I have the new card with the right information, I need to wait at least a day for the information to reset itself.
So, after more than 45 minutes of trying to get an appointment at the hospital, I left empty-handed. (Well, to be fair, no- I had my "Mi bebé y yo" box)
This was more like it.
This is more like what I'm used to in the public system.
I guess I get to try again tomorrow or Wednesday...
Meanwhile, if you're curious as to what was in my box, here it is open.I was a bit surprised by the first items that I saw when I opened the box. I guess I didn't really know what to expect, but I assumed that most of the items would be directly related to having a baby.
It's not that you don't have to wash and get stains out of baby clothes, but I wasn't expecting a sample bottle of laundry detergent and stain remover powder to be the first things I saw in the box.
The same goes for the bottle of water, but I guess that will come in handy now that they expect me to be drinking 3 liters of water a day. (of course this little 33cl bottle doesn't help me really get very far towards that goal)
So, what else was there?
Our first pacifier, a single diaper, a few baby wipes, a weird sort of powdered fruit juice for the baby (I'm not sure I want my baby to be drinking powdered fruit juice, but anyways), a copy of "Mi bebé y yo" magazine (of course)and a coupon to get a free subscription for a few more copies, a copy of "Mi embarazo" magazine, a few more coupons and ad sheets and pamphlets...
So, no, it wasn't anything super spectacular, but considering the fact that the Cofradia de Pescadores was too cheap to give us a Christmas box this year, I was just happy to get any box of some sort or other.
You can't complain about freebies!!
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