filming on the floor of my living room because  i just want this to be a relaxed little  

story time about going to  the doctor in switzerland

so i really wanted to film this because i actually  went to the doctor's office three times this week  

which is something that i do not typically do  in switzerland i guess since i've been living  

in switzerland on and off and going to school here  and that kind of stuff i always put off anything  

medical until i was back in the u.s so um usually  like dental appointments doctor appointments i  

would tend to do it while i'm on vacation in the  u.s or things like that but yeah this past week  

i was really sick and not getting better after you  know many many days probably after about 14 days i  

was not feeling good so i said okay we really have  to go to the doctor and see what is going on in  

case i need like you know to get something taken  care of that's serious or whatever so finally  

i decided to go to the doctor i do not like going  to the doctor at all i can just say that i do have  

a lot of anxiety around going to anything medical  and i also have a massive phobia of anything um  

like about needles and blood and that kind of  stuff so i tend to avoid it at all costs and i  

know it's especially scary to go to the doctor in  a foreign country and i know a lot of you watching  

are in the process of moving to switzerland  or you're interested in moving to switzerland  

so more than likely at some point you're going  to need to go to the doctor and i know it can be  

you know like i said it's a little intimidating  and scary because you're in like a foreign place  

it's not what you're used to and you don't know  what to expect so hopefully with this video i can  

um walk you through what happened to me so maybe  it gives you a better idea of what might happen  

when you go to the doctor okay so like i said i  went to the doctor three times this week so i'll  

try to talk you through each of those appointments  so the first appointment was my um first time ever  

at this doctor so i'm considered a new patient so  there's a little bit more involved in that first  

appointment so basically we walk into the office  it's what's called like a group practice like um  

because of the type of insurance that we have  i think it's called like hmo we have to go to  

this specific doctor's office we can't go to any  um doctor that we want based on our insurance  

you can choose plans like that where you can go  anywhere but they're more expensive so we went  

to this practice and walked in and the guy at the  reception just asked for our insurance information  

and that was it really he just asked for that and  here in switzerland the insurance cards have like  

the chip on them um similar to like your debit  card it looks exactly the same like the chip  

on your debit card you have those on health  insurance cards here um in the u.s we didn't  

ever have anything like like that on our health  insurance cards it was just like a piece of  

plastic with your policy and your name and stuff  but here there's like you know a chip on it so  

obviously they can scan that and get whatever  data that they need so he just looked at the  

card scanned it quickly and we sat down i was kind  of surprised that they didn't give me a clipboard  

to fill out i feel like if you go to the doctor  in the u.s they always give you like a clipboard  

where you have to like fill out your medical  history and like all that kind of stuff and i  

didn't get anything they're just like okay we have  the insurance you know you can wait in the waiting  

room so we waited for a while in the waiting room  there were actually a good amount of people there  

and one thing that i noticed in switzerland so the  waiting room was actually a closed glass room like  

it had a door on it and there were quite a lot of  people in there and every time somebody would come  

in like they would greet everybody which was kind  of strange to me so somebody would walk in and  

be like cruzi and everyone would be like hello  like that like everyone was greeting each other  

um whenever somebody went and or sometimes when  people left they would even say like goodbye and  

stuff so it was kind of different um interaction  i guess people were really kind of engaging with  

each other and that did happen every time i went  so i guess that's kind of a cultural norm here  

to greet the people sitting in the waiting room  with you and i guess since it's like a closed  

room it feels a little bit more normal to do  that so we waited and then i got called to go in  

so in the u.s how it normally worked is if you're  waiting in a waiting room um a nurse or like an  

assistant of some sort will come out and be like  sarah and then you know you walk back you get put  

in an empty room um they might check a few things  the nurse or the assistant and then usually you  

wait in the room for quite a while for the doctor  that's my experience going to the doctor and here  

it was not like that at all so actually i was just  waiting in the waiting room and then first of all  

they don't call you by your first name here like  i think in the us they always said sarah but here  

they said frau norse fraunhors um so they called  me by my last name and um then like they shook  

my hand and that was actually the doctor so the  actual doctor she came and got me from the waiting  

room and took me directly to her office so there's  no waiting like she just came and got me when she  

was ready i guess and then i went in her office  and i wish i had a picture um i didn't really  

want to take pictures of it but you know whatever  obviously but um it was very different than like  

in the us i found that they're usually very small  rooms typically no window and usually you sit on a  

like a bed that's covered in paper but here  the room was very large it had a ton of windows  

obviously that's a huge plus and um there was  like a bed that you lay on but like there was  

no paper or plastic or anything on it so i figured  i'm supposed to sit in the chairs because over to  

the other side of the room there was like a big  desk with um like three chairs on one side and  

then one chair obviously for the doctor and like a  computer and all that kind of stuff so she brought  

me in and then like we sat down at her desk it  felt kind of like you know when you go to the  

bank and you're like sitting like with somebody  telling them information and they're typing it in  

it was similar to that because we sat down and  then that's where she actually asked me about  

my medical history so the doctor was actually the  one asking allergies like have you had this have  

you had that do you have a family history of this  um the things that i'm used to filling out like on  

a form she just asked me everything and was typing  it in as we um went along so we basically answered  

all those questions got that out of the way and  then she said okay so what brings you in today  

and i told her you know i was having really severe  ear and throat pain for two weeks that wasn't  

going away and then she said okay like let's take  a look so she pulled you know paper over like the  

the bed thing and i went and sat on there and she  just looked in my ears and in my throat and all  

that kind of stuff and she could see that it was  infected um but yeah i'm not a medical person but  

when you have infections they can either be viral  or bacterial and viral infections there's nothing  

you can do to really make it go away faster in  terms of medicine and that kind of stuff but if  

it is bacterial that's when you need antibiotics  and she was unable to tell which is normal it's  

difficult to tell the difference between a viral  and a bacterial infection she said like based on  

what you described and what i see i think it's  viral but it might be bacterial um but the only  

way i can determine if it's bacterial is by giving  you a blood test and i did not want to do that i  

thought i thought that was a bit strange as well  because in the u.s i've had this kind of stuff  

many times and i've never had to give blood in  order to get diagnosed and she said the reason  

is she really does not want to give antibiotics  if she's not 100 sure you know that i need it  

and um she can tell you know if it's bacterial  and if it requires antibiotics through the blood  

so um we said you know and then she said but  basically if you don't want to give blood that's  

totally fine i don't think it's bacterial but um  you know take ibuprofen get some rest and if you  

don't feel good in like three or four days come  back in and we'll see if we can figure it out  

another way so that was about it for the first  visit i think so i could definitely tell that  

here there are a lot just from that first  visit they're a lot more like conservative  

in how they like prescribe medicine they seem very  hesitant to um give you anything like prescription  

grade like she did give me medicine but it was  all like stuff you can buy over the counter  

and yeah they're super conservative about  prescribing antibiotics whereas in the us  

i've been prescribed antibiotics over the phone  you know you can like call your doctor like i  

don't feel good i have like a sore throat and the  doctor will just like call in a prescription um  

for a lot of different things just over the phone  obviously the us is a lot looser about pills and  

you know medicine and that kind of stuff um and  then there you go three four days went by and i  

was still feeling horrible i was feeling about  the same okay so for the next appointment it  

was a saturday and we went in they were only open  for like four hours on a saturday but we managed  

to get in but i'm super grateful that they were  open i was quite surprised that they're open on  

a saturday given just the opening hours of things  in switzerland and this time we walk in and since  

they have our insurance and all that you i  basically just said my name and they said sit  

in the waiting room so i sat in the waiting room  and this time the lady that came and got me from  

the waiting room um she worked in like the lab you  know where you give blood and that kind of stuff  

so the lady got me and took me directly into the  lab and the same lady oh i get like lightheaded  

just talking about it i hate this kind of stuff  but the same lady that pulled me from the waiting  

room actually um took my blood so they could test  for bacterial infection so they did that that was  

actually really quick they did run it and luckily  they found that there was no signs of a bacterial  

infection in my blood um so yeah they did the  blood test and now i'm sitting in the lab waiting  

in the lab and now the doctor comes to the  lab and gets me from the lab to take me to her  

office so again i didn't have to get put in a room  and wait the doctor came and got me directly and  

took me into the office and you know we addressed  everything she went over the results of the of the  

blood work she gave further recommendations um and  she said yeah there's like some issue in my ear  

and i should come back and get um that sorted out  as well and she gave me more medicine and stuff  

um and that was basically it she was super super  knowledgeable and um friendly by the way i should  

say um it kind of goes without saying but they all  spoke extremely good english i never like force  

people to speak english like if they want to speak  german that's totally totally fine but it seems  

like they they prefer to if they can tell that  you are american um i did have matias with me as  

well though of course sometimes the doctor might  be looking for a word that they might not know  

right off the top of their head in english so yeah  that was basically it so yeah the blood sample was  

negative so i didn't need antibiotics and she gave  me a different medication like over-the-counter  

again over-the-counter type of thing and said  come back in like two days and we're gonna like  

clean out your ear and we're gonna like look  at something else in your ear to see if there's  

like uh something else going on in there or  whatever and then for the third appointment  

which was actually this morning so i'm trying  to film this while this is fresh in my head um  

went in said my name sat down so the same lady  who got me from the waiting room is the one who  

uh took care of my ear and then that was it the  doctor came into the room where i was and she  

talked me through everything and said things are  looking better and whatever so i think that's it  

i don't know if this is helpful at all i'm just  trying to describe you know kind of what happened  

so you can know a little bit more what to  expect and actually some things that are  

slightly different i feel like the doctors here  like do a lot more um i feel like in the u.s  

you always had like nurses and like lab people and  assistants and stuff and the doctor would really  

just come in for like five minutes and look at  you and be out really really fast whereas here  

i mean the doctor i had today she was drawing i'm  not kidding she was drawing me diagrams of like  

ears and all the tubes and like you know really  making sure that i understand the problem and  

she spent a long time with me explaining how  i can prevent things like this in the future  

and stuff and she was extremely extremely helpful  and like just caring and it felt a lot different  

going to the doctor here um yeah it was just a  little bit more like it didn't feel as rushed  

you know what i mean um which was really nice and  also the doctors here were all in like uniforms  

like some sort of scrubs or something whereas i  feel like in the us they were normally in like  

were they always into like just like a tie like  if it was a guy i feel like he was usually just  

in like a like a nice outfit like business casual  whereas here um of course if you're in a hospital  

in the states they all have like scrubs on and  stuff but i'm talking if you just go to like  

a general doctor like i did i feel like it was  usually they were doctors usually not in uniform  

but here they were um so yeah and then the  last thing that's obviously interesting which  

i'm gonna have to make a second video is the  billing so i'm gonna be honest i have no idea  

how much all of this is going to cost as an  american the first thing that i think is like  

why do i keep going back this is going to be so  expensive i don't want to go three times like this  

is good is this gonna cost me like a thousand  dollars like how much is it gonna cost and um  

basically we don't know like i asked um about  this is our first time using our swiss insurance  

and um we asked like do we have to pay anything  upfront because again in the us in my experience  

you pay like this co-pay right when you go to  the doctor like 20 to 30 dollars you pay that  

upfront and then of course things get worked out  with your insurance or whatever but um when we  

went we didn't have to pay anything all three  times we didn't have to pay anything they just  

said um we are going to build your insurance  and then you will get they said like a copy  

um so i don't know if the copy is gonna have  a bill attached to it or not i tried to look