As I mentioned before, sometimes the medical system here is very different from the one I’m used to in the US.
A few weeks ago, per my doctor’s instructions, I called and made an appointment for a morphological ultrasound for today. Fortunately for me, I had no problem making the appointment for the proper week, something I have heard can be very difficult in other areas of Italy. Instead they asked me what week I had to have it done and scheduled the appointment with no hassles. But, they called me yesterday afternoon and said, “we can’t do it tomorrow, you’ll have to come today at 4:00″. (Thank goodness I work independently.)
So, I quickly called O to see if he could come with me, since he wanted to come too, got changed and headed down to the hospital – a 35 minute drive.
There was only one problem. If you recall from my previous post, whenever you have a test done in Italy, you get an impegnativa from you doctor. You then have to take this to the main office, pay your ticket, and have it stamped, before you have the test done. Well, these offices are usually only open in the morning. Now, while the tests don’t cost very much, they’re free for pregnant women if done on schedule, so I knew I wouldn’t have to pay. But, I still had to have it stamped.
Needless to say, they did the test, but I couldn’t have the results until my impegnativa was stamped. So, this morning, it was off again to get my impegnativa stamped (during office hours) and pick up my results. I guess that’s how they save money – we do all the leg work.
I’m glad to say, everything is normal with the baby. Now I just have to start the round all over and get the impegnativa for the next test, pay my ticket/get it stamped, and go back to the hospital to have it done. What fun.
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So glad to hear everything is fine. I think this is one of those areas that being in the boondocks may work to our advantage with getting appointments and whatnot. Sure there’s still the running around, but at least they let you do the test without the stamp. In a city, they probably would’ve been stricter (grrr).
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Glad to know everything fine with the baby, perhaps this is just their way of keeping you active while expecting. Just think it will make the time go faster.
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