People back in the states can complain all they want about socialized healthcare... but having experienced myself, it's AWESOME.
For the past month or so, I've been sick off and on with some sort of cold/sinus crap. After working alone Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was exhausted, and I woke up Thursday running a low grade fever and feeling miserable (tightness in my chest, bad cough, stuffy nose, the whole nine-yards). Anyway, I decided this had gone on long enough and I really should go see a doctor.
I set off this morning to see an ENT doctor that my co-teacher recommended. She THOUGHT someone in the office spoke English, but wasn't positive. I took a tram to the building, not having made an appointment or anything, and wandered around, looking very lost, on the third floor of a building that screamed "communist era." Finally, a nurse stopped me and kept asking me in Czech what I needed. I couldn't respond in a way that made any sense (I tried), so I finally wrote down what/who I was looking for and the nurse steered me around a corner and pointed at a door. There were tons of people in the hallway outside the door (and they all shot me funny looks when I tried to open the door... which turned out to be locked). I was very unsure of what to do so I just stood around in the hall until finally, about 10 minutes later, a nurse walked out of the locked door. I was super relieved b/c I'd felt really awkward just standing in the hallway, not having checked in or anything, and even though I was still unsure of what to do, I just followed the mad rush up to the nurse and noticed that everyone was handing over their government insurance card, so I did the same. I also asked (in Czech) if any of the doctors spoke English, and thankfully one did.
About 20 minutes later I was called into the room with the locked door (which I now know is the exam room). The doctor asked for my address and phone number, then asked me to tell him what was going on. All of this took about 5 minutes, and then the doctor asked me to sign a form of consent for him to do a nasal endoscopy. I signed, walked over to an exam chair, sat down, and immediately got nervous when the doctor pulled out a long metal rod. He told me to breathe normally and not to move at all. He guided it up my left nostril and pulled it back out after about 15 seconds. It was a bit uncomfortable, but by no means painful.... then he moved to my right nostril. It was very, very painful. I was whimpering and crying, and I think the dr. actually found this mildly amusing. (I did later discover that at least in the U.S. they do generally give you a numbing nose spray before doing this procedure so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it was really painful). When he pulled the scope out, I was like this: http://i.imgur.com/W840S.gif (and since it STILL feels sore, am still doing that).
After doing the scope, the doctor told me I have severe sinusitis, prescribed me a week of amoxicillian and prescription strength sudafed, asked me for 30czk ($1.50) and then sent me downstairs to the pharmacy in the same building. The pharmacist made up the prescription immediately, with no wait, and the drugs were roughly 250czk or $12.50. I was back home within of an hour and a half of when I left and that included stopping to get lunch.
To summarize: saw a specialist, had an endoscopy, received prescription medicine, for a rough total of $14 out of pocket, all in under an hour and a half. Such a win.
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