I heart the NHS

Now it sounds like I might not leave for Haiti until next week, due to flights being "shockingly" expensive over the weekend. I'm hoping to find out more by the end of the day, but I hope to find out more by the end of every day. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

I need to preface this post by saying that I really do love the NHS, and that I would still take it over the US healthcare system (or lack thereof) any day. But because I love it so much I can say mean things about it.

I went to see the travel nurse this morning at my GP's office. It took us a while to even agree on where I'm going. She said, "Tahiti?" and I said, "No, Haiti." She said, "Where is that, Asia?" And I said, "No, the Caribbean." She then asked how to spell it and when I spelled it out she said, "Oh! Hy-EE-ti!" Brits are so weird sometimes. She then tried to tell me I didn't need malaria meds to go to Haiti, which was somewhat disturbing since I'm going there to work on malaria prevention. She also tried to tell me I didn't need one of the vaccines that my project told me I needed, until I made her look it up and she said, "Oh! You're right! Sorry!" I'm so glad the NHS lets you be your own doctor sometimes.

Because my GP practice is so small (and awful) they don't actually stock the vaccines I need. So she gave me a prescription to get my own vaccines. I went to the local pharmacy and had the same exact conversation regarding what country I was going to with the pharmacist and was forced to pronounce it "Hy-EE-ti" so she would understand me. They also don't carry the vaccines, so they order it from somewhere, I go back at 4 to pick them up, and then back to the nurse at 5 to have her give them to me. Man. No one ever said the NHS was efficient, I guess.

So that's the latest. I'm hoping to pack some stuff up today and ship it back to the US (winter sweaters, dresses, etc) so that I can actually get my life down to two bags to bring to Haiti. I've done it multiple times before, but it's still a painful process.

OK, possibly more later!