Fortunately, we have been incredibly lucky in that Cora is ridiculously healthy (knock on wood) and, up until this point, hasn't had so much as a cold. But, again, I was aware that I was playing a risky game.
So....a couple of days ago we adventured off to a local pediatrician. And by "local" read "a real, live Japanese doctor with limited English skills". We had heard about this guy through the local expat community and another expat mom who had been to him once actually accompanied us. His office is less than thirty minutes by car. Cora isn't sick, I just took her for a checkup so we could meet this guy and get the low-down on his operation in hopes that when she is finally sick I won't be quite so crazed-chicken-with-it's-head-cut-off.
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| I also took a picture of the inside, but won't post it because, well, it just looked like a doctor's waiting room. and it was full of sick kids who don't need their picture all over the Internets |
Japanese doctors are a little notorious for being....different from western doctors. Probably the #1 issue I've heard is that Japanese doctors don't like to be asked questions. And they aren't used to it because they are so highly respected in this culture that whatever they say is taken as gospel, no questions asked. Now, you might be thinking, "didn't a Japanese doctor deliver Cora?".......Yes, but he had extensive experience outside Japan and had lived and studied for some time in the US. And he spoke perfect English. This guy here, on the other hand, was the real deal.
So, how did it go? Pretty well, actually. The doctor was a little confused by the visit and called it "unusual" but seemed to understand what I was trying to accomplish and politely invited us to "yes, please, come back if baby is sick.". He was pleasant and spoke much better English than I was expecting. As for the question thing, I'm not really one for second-guessing doctors (I suppose I'm a little Japanese that way) so I can't really speak to that. Plus Cora didn't acually have anything wrong with her.
The process of checking in was a little "unusual" for me though. (Never having taken a child to a pediatrician in the US I'm sort of assuming that it's the same as going to any other doctor.)
So some things that were unusual:
- He doesn't really make appointments. You can call to consult (but his staff doesn't speak any English so you would have to be able to convince them to just let you talk to him) but otherwise you just bring your kid in and take a number. He does have a quarantine area if your kid has, say, chicken pox.
- Most people seemed to take a number and then go wait in their car until they thought they might be up. Probably to limit their contact with germs and.....
- .....the few people that did wait in the waiting room all had their face masks on. In fact, everyone but us had masks on. I am betting it's standard practice when you go to the doctor here. Gotta have your face mask. (In case you're wondering, no I don't own any and never wear them. I'm a clueless foreigner, remember?)
- And probably the most mind-boggling for me was that the paperwork I had to fill out was limited to a half sheet with name, birthdate and contact information. You know sometimes when you go to the doctor and you have to sign in on a little sheet first? Then they give you a huge clipboard full of papers to write down your life story? Well, here, it was just the sign-in sheet. That was it! No endless paperwork! They didn't even ask for insurance information (although for the record it was really cheap). Anyway, I was completely thrown off by that and who knows what I wrote down because I was not grasping at the time that there would be no more chances to offer information. They gave us a little card with Cora's name in Japanese and an ID# for the next time we come and I think we can just show them the card and that's it.
But let's hope I never have to use it. :)
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