Socialized Healthcare FTW?

Being under the weather has made me negligent in keeping up my goal of posting here daily, and for that I apologize. Now that I have slept something like 36 of the last 48 hours – okay, that might be an exaggeration – AND gone to see a médecin (doctor), and gotten some medicine to take, and slept some more, I feel a lot better, although not 100% quite yet. So, I’ll try to catch up the last couple of days in one likely-long-winded fell swoop.

As I mentioned before, there’s something about retirement age going on and a lot of people are protesting. What I have learned since then is that France is threatening to increase the minimum retirement age by two or three years (from 60 to 62 or 63), so the older people are striking and the younger people are rioting. When I asked why the younger people were rioting, the way it was explained to me was that they perceived that if more people keep working longer, there will be fewer entry-level jobs and therefore the unemployment rate will escalate. The other answer is that they want off school, so they burn trashcans in the streets, block traffic, and cause general commotion.

So yesterday morning, I woke up to more explosive sounds. There never seemed to be a fire, but the street outside my window was filled with students and police both segregated and intermingled. Later, I mentioned that if something like that were to happen at home, there would be almost immediate police response to break up the threat, but I was told that no one, including the police, really objects to the protests, so the cops are just keeping the traffic effectively detoured and the public safe while letting the kids make a scene.

I managed to take one photo yesterday morning. I’ve been having trouble getting out of bed due to being sick, so this was the best I got. I think it shows the separation between the youth and the police pretty well.

Yesterday morning I hoped that I would feel spectacular. I guess every day I hope I feel spectacular, but you don’t really think about things like that until you feel particularly bad. So I woke up and felt almost as bad as I had the morning before. As if a headache weren’t bad enough, my stomach hurt and I felt like I’d slept on something very, very lumpy. So, I got up hoping to go find Mme. Trotman, who I perceive as my French mother since she took me in last week when I needed a place to stay. I went to the SDP (Salle de Profs = Teachers’ Lounge) in hopes of catching her between class, but no such luck. So, not feeling like standing up and walking back to my room to lie back down, I perched in a chair by the English assistants’ timetables (“schedules” in our English).

Several minutes later, Chris showed up and we chatted for a few minutes. Several people came and went, though none were Mme. Trotman. I explained to him that I was looking for her to figure out where to go for a doctor, and he pointed out that a woman in the computer lab was the head of the English department and would be able to help. Weakly, I introduced myself to her, and – fortunately her English is superb – she directed us to go into town and find a door with a plaque that said “médecin général,” go in, explain that I’m sick, see a doctor, get a prescription, have the prescription filled at the “chemist” (a funny word in my opinion for a pharmacist), take the medicine, and come home and sleep the rest of the day.

Chris, having only laundry to do until after noon, offered to go with me, for which I was incredibly grateful because my translation skills fly out the window as my health declines. So, the fresh air actually made me feel a good bit better temporarily. Something about 70-degree wind is amazing when you are sweating through your clothes.

So, eventually we found a doctor – we had to stop in and ask the pharmacist, and then they told us not EXACTLY the right directions, since the “first left” was actually essentially an alley. So, we took the second left and eventually found a doctor’s office. The flight of stairs to the first (read: second) floor about killed me. I was breathing hard and sweating a lot by the time we actually got to the office.

So, the doctor came out pretty quickly and I went back with him into his office, praying that my French would hold out. It did well enough, although we had some minor miscommunications. He asked me for my symptoms, took my temperature, checked my pulse/heartrate, and gave me several prescriptions. It took about 15 minutes, if that, and while it seems to really perturb my mother that he didn’t check for strep, the flu, or any other number of diseases that could be a result of these symptoms, he did seem to know what he was doing. I paid him 25€ and left. We walked home via the pharmacy, where they filled all four prescriptions for 19€. The lady at the pharmacy asked for my “carte vitale” (which is like a social security card but I think only proves residency, not citizenship in France – I also think that, had I made it to the appointment in Marseille on Thursday, I would have had one already. Go figure). When I told her that I was foreign and didn’t have one she said, “Okay, vous payez.” Which means, pretty simply, “Okay, you pay.”

But I’m happy to pay 19€ for medicine that will make me feel as much better as quickly as they have. I came back home, researched the four “prescriptions” (which I think I could’ve bought over the counter had I known what to get), decided to take two of them, and went to sleep for the rest of the day. It was a good thing to do, too. I woke up this morning feeling weak but generally well. Several of us walked around town and shopped a bit. I bought a pink t-shirt at H&M, and a couple of useful home-items at BRICORAMA! (which seems to be like a combo ACE Hardware and Pier-1, or something…).

We came back home, I talked to Jason on Skype for a bit (I really don’t get to do that enough!), and then we went back out for dinner at a créperie. The food was REALLY good, and good company is always welcome. We’ve really got a solid group of people here. I think I’ll talk more deeply about them soon.