First sorry for the lack of updates. It’s been a very busy 3 weeks since my daughter was born. She just fell asleep after her 6am bottle, which gives me some time to update the site before I drift off into unconsciousness.

Doctors, August, and the ER. What do these three things have in common? Quite a bit actually.

At 8 days our daughter had diarrhea pretty bad, over 6 times a day. The next day it continued and we didn’t know if that was normal or not so we called our doctor. The message on her voice mail said she was on vacation and gave the name of another doctor who was filling in for her. So we called him, he wasn’t there (a secret vacation maybe?). So we called our family doctor, she’s on vacation. Ok, her usual replacement. She’s on vacation too. Darn. Look up pediatrician in the yellow pages. The other one in our town is on vacation.

At this point I walk down to the pharmacy. The usual pharmacist is on vacation too. Her replacement is from the neighboring city and gives me the name of a doctor there who is supposedly not on vacation. I asked her if I could buy what I call “fake milk” which is actually a milk replacement for babies with diarrhea. She tells me that we can’t take chances with a 9 day old baby and that we should go to the emergency room. So I take the bad news back home. We call the pediatrician but of course she’s not in. While I was gone my wife located another replacement doctor and she tells us to go to the emergency room.

We get there and the place is totally empty. There was one kid being treated but other than him there was nobody there. Kind of cool. Cool that no kids are sick or injured, but very cool that we don’t have to wait! So after the kid is let go our daughter got the attention of the entire staff. And at 9 days old she was bringing them in from all over. I didn’t know it took 3 nurses and a mom to give an IV to a baby but it was quite difficult to find the vein. And instead of crying our daughter fell asleep during the process. Amazing.

They weighed her and she hadn’t gained weight (we couldn’t say if she had lost weight cause we hadn’t weighed her since we left the maternity). So they did a suite of tests (urine, poop, blood) and gave her an IV. Then they said she’d have to spend the night until we get the test results back.

Now here I will point out my conspiracy theory as this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a hospital here keep someone (a few times it was me) for a few days when you know in the US you’d be kicked out the door as fast as you came in. During these vacation periods the hospitals are empty. Normal because Paris is empty, everyone is of course.. on vacation. So the hospitals keep you a few days because then they can bill you for it. Now the bill is paid 100% by the social security and insurance, but the end result is money flows into the hospital. Money that wouldn’t be there had they not kept you.

To make the rest of the story short, the tests were all normal but they wanted to keep her a second night so they could do more cultures on the urine tests to be sure there wasn’t an infection. They let her go after 2 nights. We took advantage by getting full nights sleep at home. Yes we felt like terrible parents for leaving her “alone” at the hospital but we were on zero sleep. I slept a record 16 hours that night. The pediatrics ward was mostly empty so our baby got lots of attention and wasn’t “alone” at all.

They sent us home with a prescription for a milk without cow proteins. Yes the fake milk I asked for in the first place. This seemed to help a lot. It is expensive but of course it’s paid for by the insurance which is very cool. We could afford the milk but some families couldn’t so I think it’s great that the French system provides it free of charge so that families in need don’t have to make the difficult decision of buying the special milk or buying other necessities. And in an indirect way our taxes are paying for the milk so we don’t even have to feel guilty about getting free milk.

So the lesson in all this: August 15 is a big holiday here, I think it’s the holiday where Mary goes up to heaven although I don’t remember that story from my Christian childhood. If there is one week where people use up one of their 7 weeks vacation it’s the week of August 15. The city is totally empty. It’s like a scene from a science fiction movie. But luckily the ER is empty yet adequately staffed. And once again, France has made us grateful for its wonderful health care system.

So on the way home from the hospital this morning (more on that in the next blog entry) we stopped at a boulangerie (bakery). I went in and did the polite bonjour and then asked for deux bagettes s’il vous plaît (two baguettes please).

I’m not sure how to translate baguette, it’s the basic bread here that is long and skinny. I remember the first time I bought one when I arrived in France. I was very disappointed when the next morning I went to eat some of it for breakfast and it was soft and chewey. Yuk! What happened? Well it doesn’t conserve long at all. Which means you must buy them fresh, sometimes twice a day.

Ok so what’s two bagettes have to do with George Bush? So the baker, hearing my petit accent asks me if I’m from American (which is very good because 90% of the French think I’m British) and I say yes I’m from the US. And then she looks at her coworker and they say “Ahh George Bush”. I said Je suis venu en France pour échapper George Bush (I came to France to escape from George Bush). That really made them laugh. I paid my 2 Euros (about $2.75) and we said goodbye, still smiling and laughing.

It’s funny how many times George Bush comes up in a conversation immediately after me saying that I’m American. It’s like some kind of test. I have to say I’m against Bush to be accepted. Now this is easy because I’m not a fan of George Bush. But do the French really think every American is behind Bush? The polls in the US show otherwise. And his support is dropping. I need a pin that says “I do not support Bush”. I’m sure I’d get applause from people in public that I don’t even know. It’d be a fun experiment.

I wonder what they’ll be saying in 2009 when I say I’m American. At least it won’t be George Bush.

Our second daughter was just born this week and while I was talking to my parents about how nice it was in France I heard them telling me how it was in the US. Quite a bit different.

Having a baby in France is a very enjoyable process. First, with the socialized medicine, you can pick any doctor you want. If you pick a hospital you won’t pay anything, and if you pick one of the best doctors in one of the best private clinics in Paris, you may end up paying $500 or so but that’s it. If you have a cesarean it’s reimbursed 100%. The hospital stay is a mandatory 5 days, you can’t get out of there quicker unless you sneak out the window. If you have a cesarean it’s 7 days.

Next is the maternity leave, three and a half months plus an almost sure extra two weeks for special circumstances that is so common women count it on from the moment they find out they’re pregnant. And what about paternity? 3 days paid leave from the employer and then 9 days paid at a reduced salary from the government. I heard some men don’t take these 9 days because you don’t get your full salary but everyone I know takes them. And then of course for mom & dad there are the 7 weeks a year of vacation that were probably saved up.

Finally, getting an appointment at the pediatrician is very easy. You can even get them the same day if it’s serious. Waiting times are usually 30 minutes or less, depending on the popularity of the doctor.

All this makes for a really pleasant experience. But what about the things that are better in the US? In France there is usually not any air-conditioning (this month it was very cold so this wasn’t a problem for us). You must bring your own towels and medicines. In Paris especially there is no parking. That was kind of weird driving my wife to the maternity when she started having contractions. I had been stressing out about the parking issue for a few months. I didn’t want to drop her off by herself because I was afraid that by the time I’d get parked and back to the maternity I’d miss everything! We got lucky in that there was a spot just outside. It was a spot for “deliveries” but it’s august when the entire country is on vacation including the parking police so we took advantage. As my wife said, “I’m making a delivery!”.