Israel's Medical System

I seriously hate Doctors in this Country. If I could afford it, I would packed up for the last 3 months of this pregnancy and move back to New York where my old trusty team of physicians await. What is with the medical system in this Country? Why is it that when we need access to our physicians, we cannot get them.

The Doctor on my shit list today is my hematologist. I have been trying to reach him for the past 3 weeks since our last appointment. On my agenda includes this issue with my Clexane shots and the birth, which is a pretty hefty one considering that if I go into labor with 24 hours of taking a Clexane shot, I cannot get an epidural should I choose to have one. Excuse me, but don't I deserve the right to choose whether or not I want or don't want an epidural during the labor and delivery? I just need a minute of this man's time to figure out a different course of action for both ease of mind and in order to figure out the where/when/how of this birth.

The second issue is that my OBGYN sent me for blood work, which I did, and of course there were abnormalities. But, no one is available to discuss the results with me! In New York, when a Dr. sends you for blood tests, they are the ones who get the results, reviews them and then calls and discusses them with the patient. Here, you need to go to the Kupah or access your account online, print out the results and then pray that someone in the medical profession here will be available to discuss the outcome. That's the problem with dealing with a Kupah, the Dr.'s just don't care about you. I can honestly say that the Dr.'s who are available to us, here in Israel, are the ones from the Medical Center. I believe we lucked out with those physicians, but my Maccabi paid hematologist and OBGYN won't give more than an inch unless I whip out the private checkbook.

Now I completely understand why people here pay privately for their Dr.'s. Unfortunately, we aren't in the position to pay that kind of money. We make no money, and the little we do have, we use on things like food, and gas, and apartment bills.

So, here I am up against a barrel, and I just need to freaking speak to the hematologist. I have his e-mail address and cell phone. I tried two other avenues first. I tried to make an appointment - nothing available before September 24th. I then tried to leave a message with his office for him to call me. Ummm, have you EVER seen a Maccabi office worker actually DO work? The phone rings and rings and rings. So, this morning, left with no choice, I decided to try the e-mail route.

This was the response received from my hematologist this morning:

Dear JTownunderground,

Unfortunately I am not doing e-mail medicine, especially when serious questions are on the agenda. Please make an appointment at Macabi (or elsewhere), to get more information on this issue.

Regards,
Pompous ASS Hematologist, MD

I just want to scream, I'm so damn frustrated. I responded, still being the polite, nice, reserved American woman that I am, with the following:

Dear Dr. Who Thinks He's G-d,

Thank you very much for your quick response to my e-mail. I cannot get an appointment with you before October, and of course trying to schedule an appointment to see you was my very first course of action when dealing with these issues. Can we speak on the phone instead? Since my due date is in November, I didn't think that these questions could wait until my appointment with you at the end of October. I look forward to your feedback.

Well, at least I have two episodes of Alias on my Hot Magic to watch this morning. Hopefully that will take my mind off of all this Dr. crap. Hopefully my bad mood will be gone by tonight, just in time for the Nefesh B'Nefesh Blogger Conference.

Yom Tov from Baka!