On Thursday we had our appointment at Sogo hospital to have Nate's head looked at for possible early fusion of his skull. I had to get up super early and have all of the kids out the door by 7:20. Piper went to my next door neighbors house and Jane took Ben and put him on the school bus. Nate and I met with an interpreter on base and we all rode together in a military van to the hospital. The hospital is a bit like stepping back to the 50's. The nurses wear white nurse dresses and white hats. They immediately took Nate's temp in the waiting room to make sure he didn't have a fever. I guess they would have sent us home if he did. Too bad they didn't send us home because the visit was a bust anyway. We checked in at pediatrics and they told us that our appointment was actually in Orthopedics. Orthopedics????? You have to be joking me. We went down to ortho and were immediately seen. Well too bad the ortho doc had nooooo idea what we were there for. He checked Nate's neck for tumors and his hips and told me to lay him on his side to help his neck/head. I asked him about his misshapen head and possible craniosynastosis through the interpreter and he didn't have any idea what I was talking about. Then I asked him about the possibility of needing a helmet and he immediately freaked out and put his hands up in an X signal and said, no, no, no, no. It was so surreal. If you have ever seen the movie Lost in Translation - I would equate this experience to that expression - something sure got lost in translation. So we are back at square one. The Dr. here has put in a consult for us to see a pediatrician in Yokosuka when we go with Grant in two weeks. He also had a call in to Tripler Hospital in Hawaii (where the babies were born!) Hopefully this is just a misshapen head due to laying too much on his left side but we need to make sure sooner rather than later.
Can you tell I was stressed that morning - I put Nate in Piper's clothes!!!
Nate's public hospital id card. His name is the Japanese characters above his birthdate. Last name first and then first name. Cool souvenir and hopefully we'll never have to use it again. If we do though, at least we are already in the system. While I was there I talked with the translator a lot about their healthcare system. The national government pays for 70% of their care and they are responsible for the other 30% either through private insurance or out of their own pocket. On the first level of the hospital they have machines where you put your yen in and pay your bill. Like a soda machine only you are paying for your hospital visit not a soda. They also have computer kiosks where you check in for your appointment if you are already in the system. No need for face to face contact. Probably good for them because 99% of the people there were wearing masks.
