Yesterday, I took Judah to get his 6 month immunizations. The process for getting shots or visiting the doctor is pretty different in France than it is in the U.S. First, I took Judah last week to have a consultation with the doctor. Thankfully, his office is within walking distance, and he speaks excellent English. He checked Judah’s weight (8 kilos – 16 lbs) and height (27 inches) and wrote me a script for the immunizations he would need. A couple days later, I took the prescription to a pharmacy to purchase the immunizations and then keep them in my fridge all week until the next appointment. The doctor does house calls during the day (minus his lengthy pause in the middle of the day) and doesn’t start seeing patients in his office until 5:30 pm. We had an appointment at 6 pm (typically, that is Judah’s bed time these days, but he did great yesterday at the appointment!). We sat in a tiny waiting room and finally the doctor called us in. He answers the phone in his office, makes his own appointment schedule, takes the payments for the visits, and makes change out of his personal wallet. It is quite a different experience from a Doctor’s visit in the States! Not wrong, just different.
