Pediatrician - Check up/immunization

Since we finally have our VZP insurance I found a pediatrician and scheduled an appointment for Ali since she still needs her immunizations. The girls and I went to the appointment last Thursday. The doctor's office is 5 tram stops away which only takes 10 minutes and her office is just a couple minutes walk from the tram stop so it is easy to get to. The doctor had been recommended to me from another mom so I felt pretty comfortable going to this doctor. I knew that she would speak English which takes away a lot of the stress. We arrived and waited for our appointment time. I brought both girls in with me to the doctors office and gave the doctor Ali's immunization card. She asked for Sofia's and I told her I didn't bring it since in the U.S. they would only want the one file for the child that was being seen for that appointment. She laughed and told me, "well, when you move back you can tell them at least one thing was easier in the Czech Republic". It was funny. She told me that they will always see the two of them together because it is just easier for me and makes more sense. I couldn't agree more. She weighed both of the girls and measured their heads and height just like in the U.S. There was definitely comfort in routine for me. We talked about what vaccines were needed. She explained that VZP only covers the required vaccines and not optional ones which may be different than what is required in the U.S. She pointed out a couple (I don't remember now which ones) but said we would talk about them more later since they are vaccines for when the kids are a little older. Both kids were given the tick vaccine which is actually a three part vaccine. They had the first shot on Thursday and will get shot 2 in 4 weeks and then the 3rd shot in a year. Apparently tick born encephilitus is a big problem in Europe and was a really big problem in Prague last summer so we decided to give the girls the vaccine so we wouldn't have to worry about that. We still have to check for ticks though since they could still get lyme disease. We had to pay for the tick vaccine though since that is not a required vaccine.

I'm going to have Jason come back with me for the next appointment so that I can get a better understanding of how the practice works. While the doctor does speak English, it isn't the best English (although certainly much better than my Czech!) so it is hard to really understand everything while trying to watch both kids. I think that there are two options with the doctor's office. We can just be a regular patient and go during normal office hours for illness or prevention. By this I mean that there are no appointments. There are regularly scheduled office hours for prevention visits and illness visits. If you need to bring a child in for illness you arrive during the office hours and wait your turn. The other option is to become a VIP patient. This means we would pay 5000kc ($300) a year and we can have scheduled appointment times so there is no waiting and we will have the doctor's private cell phone number to call at anytime, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It is interesting how that is different than the U.S. In the U.S. the doctor's office has a calling service with a doctor on call if there is a problem. Here you have to pay for that service. I'm not really concerned about the calling after hours part since we never bothered to do that in the U.S. but the not having to wait for my turn during office hours might be worth it. We will find out for sure at the next visit if that is how it works so I will keep you posted.