E.T. phone home.

What a day my last day in Florida.
Plans were to go to Miami Beach and party, but my throat was not in a partymood.
Since Fridaynight my I wasn't feeling too good. And I felt worse on Saturday. I could hardly swallow, I felt nocious after eating something, I was dizzy and I had a terrible headache.
I felt tired all the time and could sleep anywhere.
Lilly still felt bad, for three days now she had no voice at all and she couldn't swallow a thing, not even her own spit.
But I guess she felt bad for being sick while I'm here on my holiday that she took me to the beach for 2 hours.
But at the beach, I was not feeling too good. Sitting in the sun only made my headache worse and I felt like I was burning even though I applied sunscreen 5 times in an hour. And at the same time I felt cold and had goosebumps.
Not a good sign.

I was supposed to go out with Carmen but I was too tired and felt sick. I was running a fever. Cold and hot all the time so Lilly and I stayed at home, both sick on the couch.
I said to Lilly maybe it's better to go see a doctor.
But she didn't want too.
That's the sad sad part of being an American... Health insurance.
Lilly hasn't got health insurance through her work and to pay it yourself it's too expensive.
(What we would pay for hospital insurance per year, an American citizen would have to pay this amount per month!)
So she rather stay sick on the couch, trying every medication she could get from the drugstore.

Since it's the weekend, going to the doctor is not an option. Besides, you always have to make an appointment with a doctor before you could see him.
Only option if you feel sick on a Saturdaynight, or a Sunday is to go to the ER.
I said I might wanna go to make sure I have no swine flu, since I am travelling to New York on Sunday for a couple of days, and I don't wanna stay in bed, sick.
Lilly said if it would make me feel better I should do it. But she wasn't going because without insurance, going to the ER could easily cost her more than a thousand dollars!

A hospital will always give you healthcare if needed, not like many of you think they only give you healthcare if you have insurance. But, you will always get the bill. And without insurance, it means you have to make a downpayment every month.
Money that you could have used for something else.

So today, I thank God for the sickfunds in Belgium who only costs us about 65 euro a year!

Anyway, to make this long story short. We both were sleeping at 9:30 pm on this Saturdaynight when we were supposed to get ready and party in Miami...
With some tylenol (good stuff) I went to sleep...

Carmen did ask me to maybe get a drink, but even though my mind said yes, my body said no.
And for me to say NO to party in Miami means I am really ill.

At Sunday morning Lilly woke me up, making handsignals she could hardly breath and wanted to go to the hospital too.
So I got up and we went to the Florida Medical Center.
We came in and first you had to fill out this form where you put down your name, address, name of the doctor and what's wrong with you.
Then you go to the registration desk and guess what the first question is they ask?
'Do you have insurance?'
I said: Yes.
Then other questions like: are you allergic to anything, how long do you have these symptoms, have you ever been pregnant, ...
Tbh I don't know why they wanna know if you were ever pregnant.. But anyways.
After these questions they put two wristbands on me, one that had my name on it (which I had to sign to confirm it) and another yellow one that said I had no allergies to any drug.
After that I had to sign many forms.
The first one was that the hospital could claim their money from you if your insurance is not willing to pay.
Then another one that said I gave them permition to examine me in this hospital and proceed with healthcare if needed.
Another form that I have no doctor in the US where they need to send a copy of my hospital visit to.
And the last form stated that everything between patient and doctor is confidential.
(I have no idea why I need to sign that, but I guess there's some insurance reason for it :)

After all the signing I had to go sit in the waiting room for my name to be called.

This lady yelled « Taaniya » So I got up to this next room.
There: another bunch of questions!
Are you pregnant? How tall or you? What's your weight? (which was not easy because she didn't know cm to ft or kg to lbs) Have you ever had surgery? Where you in Florida before? Did you had these symptoms then? And so on.
She took my temperature which was 99°F I think (so no fever anymore), measured my blood pressure (11/7) and the oxigen in my body (100%).
Then she walked me to ER room 11 said to put on the rope on the bed with the opening to the back and wait for the doctor.

This doctor came in, smelling of sigarets and while coughing/spitting on me he asked me with an Indian accent: You have flu symptoms?
I wipe his spit of my face and tell him: Yes, since Fridaynight.
Let's see your throat.
Yes your left side is swollen.
He listened to my lungs and said: "I'll have someone come in to withdraw some blood and a smear of your thoat so it's no strep."
And doctor Punjab was gone.

After 10 mins or so a nurse came in to take the smear of my throat and a young guy (I believe an assistent) was there to take some blood.
The nurse went away with the sample thing from my throat and the young guy was gonna draw some blood. Which, may I say, was the best blooddraw I ever experienced :) I didn't feel a thing, not even the needle going in!
Maybe they use thinner needles here, i don't know. But it was cool.
They also but this bandaid on my finger measuring my heartbeat and oxigen level.
The bandaid radiated some red light and I felt like E.T. phoning home. (as you can see in the picture)

Now the cool thing about the American ER is that they have your bloodresults within the hour. So the guy who took the blood gave me the remote, turned down the light and let me relax.
I watched a movie on TBS but I think after every 7 or 8 minutes of movie there were 10 minutes of commerials. And always the same commercials, ugh.
Lilly came to see me, she was in emergency room 7. They withdrew some blood from her too and she had to go for an X ray and give them a urine sample.

After about an hour the doctor came back, asking me if I spoke French or Flemish back home.
I said: Flemish.
He said: But your English is really good too.
I thought: Yes, better than yours :)
The MD told me my blood was okay and that I had pharyngitis. He said he 'd wrote a prescription for some antibiotics and said someone was gonna come to discharge me.
Lilly on the other hand waited too long to seek medical help and her throat was much worse. She couldn't eat & drink and had a hard time breathing. So she had to stay the night.

I got dressed again and waited for the person to discharge me.
Another man, who I hadn't seen before came in, introduced himself as Shane and gave me the prescription and my discharge papers.

Then, I got to the 'discharge' window, waiting for my bill.
I had a flat rate B which was 350 $
Thank God for creditcards.
I paid the 350 dollars and send the information to my sickfund in Belgium.
The prescription drugs were 12 dollars.
Haleluja to CM :)

So now I'm home ready to start packing. I won't see Lilly anymore before I leave, which is sad. But I told her if I can find a cheap ticket in the near future I'll come again and we will go out partying at Miami beach... But for now, I got a ER story to tell. But believe me, it's not at all like the series on TV, not as hectic and no gorgeous doctors....