Ah Spain!

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Transcript

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[Music]
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Hola, welcome to A Spain. How's it going? It's going great, Tanya. How are you?
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I'm good. Do you have an a Spain for us to start this episode with? I do have an ah it's an a Spain. So,
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it's a good one. Okay. It's a good one. Yeah. So, you know, we've talked about the menu delas here,
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which we love. Which we do love. And so, there's a down the street from us, there's one of those
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conveyor belt, all you can eat sushi places, you know. So jealous. Yeah. So, it's not like you have these
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other ones that, you know, it's the all you can eat, but you order from the menu and they keep bringing it out to you. This is the one the conveyor belt, so
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like it's fun and, you know, it's a mad dash and everyone's grabbing the plates and everything. It's a little survival of the fittest.
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We did it in Madrid, but I've never been to the one here. You're kind Yeah. when the good stuff comes out, you're like, "It better make it to me." You're
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looking at all the other people, right? Don't Yeah. You're looking at like six tables away. You're like, "Oh, don't you better not grab it. You better not grab it."
1:02
So, anyway, you know, it's a relatively inexpensive for all you can eat. It's
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like, I don't know, like 17. Yeah. Well, it's €17 person during the week. And
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then we get the bill and we with another family friends of ours and we get the bill and the lady says, "Oh, it's
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Thursday." So every fourth person eats free. Oh wow. So So yeah. So we paid for six instead
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of seven. And I was like, "Oh my god, this is like and and one of my children,
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you know, she puts buffets out of business." I'm like, "They have really lost some money on us today."
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That's when you want to and you do want to take people like that to the buffets because you really do want to get your
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money's worth, right? So it's kind of nice that. But you just needed one more person. That person would have you could have literally taken someone off the
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street. I mean, there was seven of us and Yeah. I was like, we should have just had one more person. Yes, we can have two people
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eat for free. And then all morning, of course, I was telling the kids, you are not touching any food. We are going to eat at 1:30 and you will eat then,
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right? And that's going to be it's and you're not getting dinner either because you're not for two days. So, eat.
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Yeah. The prices on those are like if you can go during the week are like really makes sense. They really go up
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during the weekend and holidays and things to like €25. But still, if you're someone that eats a lot and you like,
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you know, they I mean, they're great, I think. Well, I mean, €17 is like the price of
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one and a half rolls, right? So, we definitely eat more than one and a half rolls, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's true. Especially the sushi
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ones. There's other ones that do like seafood and like kind of more like Chinese style stuff, I think, that we've
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been to, but the sushi ones, you really feel like you're getting your your money's worth, right? You really are. That's a That's a lovely ass fan. I love
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that. It was We're gonna have to try that one because we do love a an entertaining meal of any
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sort, right? We have the sushi buffet that has the the little cat that goes around the robot cat.
3:04
Okay. Yeah. Who's like And we love that. But that scares me. That's a little freaky. That's a little too That's a little 2001 space odyssey for me. That's
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like We love it. But when it gets busy and the cat's coming and all the kids are like, "It's it's going to be for us.
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this is going to be fias like and you're like okay all right then you got to like ask could you please send the cat our way
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oh I will will tell you what they just implemented at this is they also have
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now a menu that you can order from all cart and it's one penny per item and
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they deliver to you emittedly so you don't have to wait for it to come around so if you're like really impatient for
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an extra penny you can order your nigiri and your sashimi and your seaweed salad
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and stuff. So, well, I would say that's a that's a good idea as well. And I think on the weekends, they generally have more they
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they do charge you more, but they also have more things available on the free menu,
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right? So, you're kind of that's that's what I've noticed. And and I will say for a s a suggestion for anyone that does do
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these kind of buffety kind of places, especially a lunchtime, um get there at
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the beginning of lunchtime because they've made what they're going to serve. And if you like, I'm going to show up at 2:30. It's like every like 20
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seconds a plate comes by, you know? Yeah. And we go to one that's seafood. And I will say like Jawad likes the the
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crawfish that they have. And again, like you need to get there because there's a point where that runs out,
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right? So then if you get there later, they probably aren't going to have it. So you do Yeah, that's good advice. You got to
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get there early for sure. If you get there late, you're getting bread and rice. And and some of them include drinks and
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some of them don't also. So that's another thing. Like might be 178 plus the drinks. And then the drinks are like
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23 apart, right? So included, but we ordered like two big liter and a
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half bottles of water. So, it was, you know, they weren't expensive considering what we ordered. No one was getting their own sodas. That's I put I put my
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foot down. But one of them has like free free beer and wine. I don't even know how they do it. And
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and so very Spanish, too. Nobody's falling out of their drunk. Right. Right. It's like they're just having
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their bottle with the table and leaving. So, it's very like um it's very put together for
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that type of thing. Like I can think of places I've lived where if they were offering free wine
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that no one would want to be there. No. No. Like those like bottomless mimosa Sunday brunches.
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Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to be there. You take a cab to those. You don't drive there. No. Okay. So, funnily enough, this
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episode was not about buffets. More food. This is actually about healthcare, which maybe the two are related a little
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if you've been eating too much. But maybe we should skip on to our healthcare episode in case that's what people actually tuned in to hear about.
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Just a surprise. I think so. Yes. Um, where do you want to start? It's
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good. We've got a lot of things to talk about. We do have a lot of things to talk about. So, I guess we could just start
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with our listeners that are thinking about moving over here. The most important thing to know is you have to
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have your health care situated before you apply for your visa. So, you have to
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have private health insurance paid for a year um year upfront before you get
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here. And it has to have no co-pays. It has to it has their certain limitations and and we'll get into a brokers and
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stuff later, but when you get to that point, if you go to a broker, you go to an e insurance company, they know if you
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just say visa insurance, they know what they know what they're supposed to sell you. Yeah. They know what it is. So, you don't have to guess, is this the right
6:35
one? Yeah. They'll be like, okay, you sell them, I need it for a visa, boom, you're done. Yeah. They know. And it's
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complete coverage. And to jump into the coverage and what you get here, it's
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amazing. If you're coming from America, if you're coming from a country without any kind of national health system, it's
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amazing what you can get. You so that you you have complete coverage. You can
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go to the doctor. You don't have there's no co-pays. You're not doing anything. And and I mean, we pay I think when we
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moved here, we paid around two 250 a month for three of us. Now it's like 300
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for three of us. I mean, obviously it goes up like it does everywhere else as you get older. Um, and then you So, we're two adults
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and a kid, and you're one adult and two kids, and I think yours is maybe probably a little bit less. Yes. Because because of the youth
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because of those those youth and their and their freedom from elderly ailments,
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but I mean, that's amazing, you know, when you when you see that it was it's just I mean, and for that, you're you're
7:33
never paying anything. I we go to the emergency room, we're getting the, you know, the medicine. So let's let's start
7:38
that. You're not paying anything for doctor visits, for x-rays, for MRIs, for going to the emergency room, anything you need medical. You will pay extra for
7:46
you'll get one eye exam, I think, and one dental cleaning more or less probably. And then everything else
7:53
related to eyes and dental will be extra. And then your medic your medicine will be extra. But the medicine here
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again also much much much cheaper. So unless you're on something really crazy or on a lot of things, your the cost of
8:05
your medication is going to be a lot lot less. But you can in all those three cases for prescriptions, for dental, and
8:12
for eye care, you can pay extra and take a look at what that costs and what you need and whether whether that makes
8:18
sense for you. And that would be an extra thing that you do not need for your visa, but you can get if you need it.
8:23
Um, and I've been very happy with it. We now we've been here in two years and we're still on the private um health insurance. It it has been great. I mean,
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for what we pay for the year would be, you know, less than what we would pay for a month if we had to do, you know,
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private health insurance on our own back in the States for a month, right? Like for what we get for a year, you'd have
8:41
to pay for a month if you were lucky, right? And it's really great. And we've s I mean, we'll get into the the Spanish
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healthare system in a minute, but as far as like we're both obviously we've both been using the private healthcare um and
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I've been using the other one, but for the private healthcare, we we just like I don't know. I have a different mentality now about healthcare and I
9:00
love it because it's very preventative. It takes a little while to get used to the fact that you can get all these things done without paying.
9:06
And if you are I mean we're we've always been self-employed so our healthcare in America always sucked and we had to pay
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it because if we kind of got the ones that were like less but if we got really sick hopefully it paid for something which it probably wouldn't have at the
9:18
end of the day but that was the theory and so we had a lot of co-pays and out of pockets and deductibles and we would
9:24
have been paying 10,000 easily if something happened before anything kicked in. So here it's like you know
9:30
Zena was jumping around on the couch one day and she banged her foot on the coffee table. I bet everyone's been
9:35
there, right? So I mean in America and I kind of looked at her foot and I'm like h it feels all right. You're wiggling
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all your toes. It's fine. I would never have gone to the doctor for that in America ever. I was just
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like you know what it's like let's just go have a doctor look at it. It doesn't going to cost us anything. And and it
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was like 8:00 in the morning. She had to be at school by 9. So, we went down to the emergency room. We were in and out
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of there with an X-ray in 25 minutes with an with an AO. Okay, and in and at
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school on time. Wow. Like, that scenario would never have happened in America. Not where I've
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lived anyway. Maybe in the middle of nowhere in some place, I don't know, but not in any of the big cities that I've
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lived in there. That was like I was like, I can't believe like I got home and I was like, we went to the doctor,
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we had an X-ray, we had a doctor look at her, and I got her to school on time.
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Yeah. I mean, that's pretty amazing. That's pretty unheard of, right? But it's normal, but that's normal because the emergency rooms are kind of
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I mean, they're not empty. It's definitely these private hospitals are filling up now. There's more people coming. There's more people using them.
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Um, Spanish and and people from other countries. I mean, everyone's using them because everyone has, you know, a lot of
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Spanish people have the have the regular healthcare in Spain, but they also have a private health insurance for things that you want to have done a little
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quicker, um, or, you know, that type of thing. So, you know, the the emergency rooms are and there's a lot of
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preventative care here. You can get all your preventative care done by the National Health System or privately with
11:06
with your insurance that you're getting for visa. So, there's not just this this like desperation of need for things
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that could have been prevented that end up in the emergency room in America, right? So, you're just so it's it's just
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a very different scenario and it takes a little while to get used to it, but it's it's we've had a great experience, too. But what I haven't done, and it's
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something I'm looking into now because we've been here long enough and and I'm thinking about because after you've been
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here for a year, you can buy into the national health care system. Oh, but I I
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would also like to say once you've been here, I think it's 6 months. I'm not sure. You can get what is what's called
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the SIP card. Even though that doesn't put you in the national health system, it puts you in the database. Right?
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Right? So, if you have private health insurance, you still want to get a SIP card because then it it kind of has all
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your information. So, if you end up in the emergency room room, they can pull you up and they know who your details are and and what's going on and and
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those kinds of things. And also sometimes for the kids, they they want that for school as well for for that reason, I think, because a lot
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of the schools, we'll get into this later, they have they also have um doc like nurs's office or a doctor in the
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school. So, they have a whole system and they can log into things. Um and and we got the SIP card because when we moved
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it during COVID, we got the SIP card that doesn't give us the actual healthcare, but it gave us the free
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COVID vaccinations and we had to have the SIP card to do that because they wanted that tracked of of who had got it
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and how many you had and all this kind of thing. So that was all tracked on the SIP system without us actually paying
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into it or or having any other healthcare advantages. Mhm. And well, so I guess so what I'm saying is
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I'm going to look into getting it because we've been here long enough and I'm thinking maybe maybe we should because maybe because now we've been
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here long enough. I don't necessarily have to have private. So it's something I will weigh. Um not there yet. I know a
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lot of people keep both and maybe we'll probably would keep both. But what has been your experience? Why don't you I'm
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going to play interviewy here interviewer like so what's your tell us tell us people
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about your experience with the national health system when do you use it and what's been your experience with it like
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what what makes what do you choose you're like okay she's fallen off the couch which hospital am I going to
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yeah I mean when we first when we first moved here we had some kind of emergency and I can't remember what it was but we
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went to the I don't think IMED which is one of our private hospitals which
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there's now two of now. One in the city and one just outside of the city. Um I'm not sure they were around or we hadn't
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heard about them yet. Okay. Cuz we didn't have a podcast to listen to and get all the details, right?
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So we were like I'd never heard of IMAD. So we ended up in a in a Spanish hospital and we got help. And I don't
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I'm not sure if we paid, but we had a really good experience there. We we might have had a SIP card at that point, but anyway, we went and we had a very
13:55
good experience, but there was not a lot of Spanish being used. I mean, a lot of English being used, sorry. But they did
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go find somebody to help with the it was like a nurse that spoke some English. Like they like ran around the hospital
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and tried to find somebody to come help us. And it was a really good experience and it was fine. But up you know from
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then on we have been using the private hospital because I think in a lot of these cases there's
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the need for you know my Spanish is pretty good and I can get through a lot of things but not things I don't I that
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are new that I don't know the vocabulary. So if someone's explaining something new medical to me, it's probably going to go in one ear and out
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the other, right? So, it's nice for me to go to IMED because I can speak to somebody in English and but we are we
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are I'm now autonom so I've been paying into the system and I now have and then I went and got my SIP card switched to a
14:47
Spanish healthcare SIP card which I can then use and we have a you know we live in a small town we have every town and
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the city presumably has lots of them a center de Salude where you can go and you're kind of registered with them and
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you can go in there and you can talk to how it works in ours is that you have to
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kind of you can talk to an you can get an appointment with a nurse but you can't get an appointment with a doctor. The doctor has to decide that they want
15:13
to see you or you have to kind of go in and say I want to talk to a doctor and then they'll interview about what it is
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and they'll decide if you want to see a doctor. Right. So so the nurse is like the gatekeeper
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almost like in the states or like your GP is your gatekeeper to see if you really get to get that thing taken care
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of. Well, I feel like you have two gatekeepers because you have the front desk and then the nurse and then the
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doctor. So, the doctor obviously does all the prescriptions, but I think the doctor will the nurse will will consult
15:40
with the doctor without you if needed. But if you need to just sort of like go in and get blood done, this type of
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thing, you can just make an appointment. There's times that they do that. But what I tend to do because I have the
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private healthcare is I will go to the private doctor and and make sure I'm fully understanding what's going on.
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Okay? And once I know what I need and once I know what the subject matter is, I can then go to the center de Salude
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and make sure that all my prescriptions and stuff are in my SIP card system because then I'll be taking advantage of
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the discounted price. What's the discounted price? What's how it depends on your drug. So I mean, you
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know, I mean, one that we have in our family, I think, was like it was €6 a month. I mean, really expensive, €6 a
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month, but it was like 33 cents a month. Oh, wow. So, I mean, it's a huge difference. That's a big difference. I
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mean, and and then the other thing is is that you have like there's an app and there's an app for the private health. I
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have an app for my for the private hospital. I have an app for the for the Spanish system and I have an app for my
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um Sanas. So, I have all those three apps and I can do a lot of things in there like would be your insurance in case people
16:48
don't know. Right. So, I can make appointments in those. I can you can call Senas or your health insurance. You can call IMTA and
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make appointments or you can do it in the app. Same goes for the for the nurse at the center de Salude and you know so
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this is an example we had I was looking through all Zena's vaccinations right and I was look it looked at it and in
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America we had the whole page was like she's had one of four 204 three4 but she
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had never had the four or four right and I went to the I went to the I was like let me go talk to a a person in
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English about this because this is incredibly complicated and I do not know the vocabulary for this all I I don't
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even know the vocabulary in English because it's all the different vaccines and what do they do and you know you can spend time on Google figuring out what
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they are and I'd had someone look at it when we first moved. So I definitely like had somebody look at it and they
17:37
said oh you just are missing one but then when I went back and checked it now I was like it seems like she's missing more. So that doctor was like, "Yeah,
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you can do this, but all of you're going to have to pay for them if you want them because
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she's it's not the age that she would have had them." This everything. We're doing the similar thing with my
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youngest because she has she has she has a vaccine that is scheduled for America
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time and we came here and they're like, "It's 100 a shot and she needs two of them." And I was like, "What?" They're like, "Yeah, we give that at birth
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year." I'm like, "Right." Yeah. So now you're out of it. You're out of schedule. You're going to pay. Right. Right.
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Yeah. And then the HPV one was like I mean literally 6 months ago it was two shots and now it's only one. So they
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also like keep changing. Right. So then I went to I took all this information that I had of all the shots that maybe
18:24
she should have and I took it to the center de Salude and I was speaking to the person in the front the first gatekeeper and then that person got the
18:30
nurse because you know she didn't really know about this. So I then was talking to the nurse and she was like well we
18:36
don't do those in in Spain. We only do three of those in Spain. So she's fine. You don't need it. And I was like, well,
18:41
if she ever goes back, she's to another to another country. I want to make sure she's I want to make sure she's globally vaccinated
18:48
because she might leave Spain at some point and go live somewhere else. But it was funny that they have a different
18:53
system. So, you do have choices to make, you know, whether you want them to be fully vaccinated that like in Spain, they've decided that they only need
19:00
three of that vaccine instead of four and that's what they give. So, right. So, that was an example of like me just
19:05
using both systems. And then for myself, you know, it's like I try and do I try and do as much as I can at the center
19:11
delude because it also helps me practice my Spanish and it's it's local here to
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us. It's very easy to get to and most likely wherever you live you'll have one within walking distance of where you
19:22
are. So it's you know it's very very convenient and they're you know they they know everything that they need to know to help you. So,
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and from what I've understood from I've heard this from expats and from Spaniards that do have have both a re
19:34
another reason why they'll they'll have the Spanish health system especially if they are getting up in age is I mean
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neither of us are but you know other people other people I paid a salon to give me
19:46
these the three gray hairs I have on so you're so young that it's cool to be gray
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it's cool it's platinum it's platinum blonde so um but what I have heard
19:56
people have have said it makes sense is that you want the private for your
20:02
elective and your kind of ongoing preventative care, but if you have a
20:07
cancer or debilitating diseases and like really kind of like lifealtering traumatic kind of illnesses, you want
20:14
the public because that's from what I've heard is that's where that's where this the government money is going for
20:19
research and that's where those doctors are. The doctors with those kind of knowhow is is what I have heard. And I
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did sad I did sadly meet somebody here whose husband had um I think died of cancer here unfortunately when they
20:31
moved here and she had said that exactly that he had they had started in the private health care system but once they
20:37
got into the public one the care was like astoundingly good compared for that
20:42
type of thing you know but if you've like twisted an ankle and you need it checked out and you want it you know you want it x-rayed and d like you can get
20:49
that done in you know very quickly and I we get all of our blood work done at IMED because it's so much easier. You
20:55
can just go in whenever you want, get it done, and then you can take all of that paperwork. It all goes back and forth.
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You have that paperwork. It comes to you. You can take it to another doctor, the center of the salude, whatever you
21:06
want to do, and have anybody evaluate it for you. So, I will say what is is s or shock or
21:12
surprising or huh is when you leave the doctor here, you just leave like there
21:18
is no checking back in with the front desk. Like you just you just walk out and you know if the only times I've had
21:24
to check in is when my doctor said my printer's out so go to the front desk. They have the like the summary of today
21:29
even though it's in the app but if you want it you have to go to the front desk cuz my printer's jammed. So but otherwise she's printing it out and
21:36
sheing me out the door at the same time. Here you go. See you in a month. Don't forget to make your appointment. Blah blah blah. Right. You're done. Yeah. And actually in in
21:43
IMAD now you don't even have to check in because you can do that on your phone. Now you get a text message. It's like do you want to check in? So I literally go
21:48
into the hospital, wait, go see the doctor and leave and I don't see anybody else. Right. Yeah. Same boat. But I think I
21:56
think you and I have discussed this before. The IMED in Burhusote was was is
22:02
architecturally challenged in that it is a new hospital, but for some reason they thought only three elevators were enough
22:09
to service what 10 floors, 11 floors, and so you're always waiting. So, don't
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make the mistake of checking in on your app when you're on the ground floor. At least wait until you're in the elevator
22:19
because you might wait a good 10 minutes. I have almost missed an appointment waiting for the elevator. And I'm not
22:25
kidding. I got there 25 minutes early and it I Yeah, I was like, what is going on? Yeah. No, it's really crazy. And I
22:32
They don't feel slow when you're going up in them, but they must also be incredibly slow, right? Because I think Well, there's so
22:38
And then I think there's also off topic. I think there's like four levels of underground parking, too. So I think
22:44
it's just even more floors. But I think those are different ones, but maybe some they have Yeah, that that
22:49
is totally off topic. But it it doesn't function. There are stairs also. There's no the stairs are this way sign. So
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everyone's standing there, half of whom are probably quite capable of going up the stairs, but they don't know the stairs are there,
23:02
right? So everybody's waiting and it's like, okay, so now I know if I'm on like the,
23:07
you know, one through three or something, I'll, you know, I'll take the stairs. Right. Yeah. That's not a great that's not a
23:13
great thing about but everything else is good there. So yeah, I I I really like having both now. I I it's a nice thing
23:21
and this the SIP card has a very good app for your medicines and everything and it tells you when your next
23:27
medicine's coming up. So you know like cuz they'll give you like you know this medicine for a month. So if you picked
23:32
it up at certain time, it'll be ready for you to pick up again at this time that you can't pick it up early. If you need to go on vacation and you need to
23:40
get drugs early, you need to pay for them out of pocket at that point. But the difference I mean that's probably
23:46
not astronomical, but it that is what you would have to do. They will not like they will not be like, "Oh, you're going
23:51
on holiday. Okay, well let me give you more." No, you'll you'll pay. I've had and I don't know about you, but I've had an experience where um one of my
23:58
daughters is on a medication that's every month and so they'll give me the three months in advance and my pharmacy
24:04
has let me has allowed me to get all three months at once. They just take all the prescriptions at that time. So I
24:10
think you might be able to arrange with your doctor that I need can you get the next three months. So that might be something. Yeah, you might be able to do it with
24:17
the with the doctor, but you probably couldn't get that fourth month. You know what I mean? So you're probably stuck a
24:22
little bit. I mean, you there's no need to be stuck. I mean, the the medicine it's it's all handleable if you have to
24:27
pay it one month and it's free the rest of the time. It's not like it's like it's, you know, it's we we've all come
24:34
if you're coming from America, we've all come from a way worse situation. So, I would say it's a very very very good
24:39
system. Now, I don't I don't personally well, I have I do know people I haven't had the conversation. Have you had any
24:45
conversations with expats that are actually from within the EU? how if they have a like what's their experience with
24:51
the healthcare versus us that are coming from America that you know they don't do they have to buy into private or is they
24:57
get if their s if their country so they have an agreement within all the countries so if you you kind of get your
25:03
public health transferred from that country to this country so if you have so this is what happened when England
25:09
left is that that public health care link got also disconnected so that's something I don't know if it got back
25:15
connected again I know that the I know that Brexit is probably an ongoing thing that'll be ongoing for the next 20 years
25:20
when they try finally go back in and fix things. So, I don't know what the current status is, but essentially that
25:26
did get sort of disconnected, but if you're from an EU country, then there's an agreement that everyone takes care of
25:32
everybody. That's that's part of that. So, you're so you're good. And since we touched onies, let's talk abouties
25:38
because that's a very different scenario that we've had very good experiences with the pharmacy. If you're thinking of
25:44
like CVS or Walgreens or Target and you're just going in and there's like kind of a person there that's just
25:50
filling drugs and giving them out. If you try to stop one of those people and ask them a question about something,
25:55
it's like gh I've got things to I've got drugs to put together. This is not my job to worry about your sinus infection,
26:01
right? Unless you find a nice one, but so no offense to all the people working there. I know you're working really hard
26:06
filling medications and that's taking up all your time and there's 25 people waiting for those medications so it has
26:12
to get done, right? But that's not their job. And here it's very different. It is you can go to the pharmacy for care
26:19
without even going to your doctor and that is another thing. It's kind of like a an urgent care,
26:24
right? You can go there if you're like I have a cold and they are like mini nurses, right? They they they can tell you what you need. They ask you your
26:31
symptoms and they give you like an array of like you can try X, Y, and Z. Oh, I would like to say because I I think this
26:37
is something interesting in coming from America to here and I know this is kind of more universal everywhere, but
26:42
America is different is that in America, pharmacists are filling prescriptions. Literally filling prescription bottles
26:49
and here pharmacists are not filling prescription bottles. They come in a box that is either 30 or 12 or or seven
26:56
pills. You can see they're a little bottle. They're already pre-done. So, they're just pulling out something out of a shelf and handing it to you. So
27:03
they aren't wasting their time with these little gadgets counting pills and putting them in orange bottles and all
27:09
that. And I don't know, you might not have had this experience, or maybe you have. I think it's really cool. Some of theies
27:14
are super fancy and they punch the stuff in or they or they slide your SIP card and then and then the drugs pop out in a
27:21
little machine behind them and I love it. Yeah. What do they call those things? Like in the olden days where they cash
27:28
registers weren't allowed to have cash cuz they didn't trust the employees and it would go in that little tube or the old bank tellers and would suck through
27:34
the the air tube. Like that's kind of how it is. We have those that consume. Don't you? Haven't you seen them? Yeah.
27:40
No, I haven't seen Oh, I love it. I love it when it happens when I'm there. They're rolling up their money and putting in those little suction things. I love it.
27:47
It's totally like 1920s bank, you know? It's totally awesome. And when I when I
27:52
go to a pharmacy and they have some sort of weird dispensary machine mechanism thing, I it almost makes me feel like
27:58
I'm a little kid at the at the dry cleaners watching the clothes go by. I'm like, "Oh, this is so exciting." It's like your candies coming out or
28:03
something. Anyway, so you know, that's very true. So they're not wasting their time that they have time to talk to you. And it's also Spain. So let's have a
28:10
mini R Spain moment, which is that it's totally fine for them to sit there and chat with you for 25 minutes, even if
28:16
there's five people behind you. And just you have to chill. like that's what's happening at that moment and that's the person they're talking to and no one's
28:22
going to feel rushed or you know out of or or annoyed or whatever like if you don't have time for it then go get a
28:28
coffee and come back like you know like you wait so you can talk to the pharmacist and they will so it's kind of
28:33
like having a private nurse really because they will there are certain drugs that you know if you go to the
28:40
grocery store or one of these target type stores that have sort of everything
28:46
there is no pharmacy in those places. There is a beauty section where you can get, you know, toothpaste and shampoo
28:51
and and maybe something, you know, little, but there's there's no drugs in those places. You have to go to the
28:57
pharmacy. So, you know, you have they can they can give you drugs that are behind the
29:03
counter because they've decided to give them to you that aren't prescription, but they're not just out there for you to
29:09
grab either. You're not going to pull a bottle of aspirin or ibuprofen off the shelves here. Like, it's everything is behind
29:14
the counter whether you need a prescription or not. you have to go through them to get them and and they're
29:20
not like judging you. It's just how the system is, right? So, and and ouries
29:25
here, so people haven't been, they're like an American Starbucks. They're on every corner. Like every block has a pharmacy. Again, how are they all
29:31
staying in business that they're I mean, in the city at least, they're on every block. Yeah. Because they're being used for everything. I mean,
29:38
Yeah. but they have very little in the actual shop. Some are bigger. Yeah. And we'll have a lot more like
29:43
kind of beauty supplies and kind of fancier body creams and and homeopathic
29:49
kind of things and maybe a section of baby stuff if you they some of them have like sort of maybe some bottles or some like formulas
29:57
not maybe like like you know pacifiers and things that you could they might have a little baby section of sort of necessities as well. So that would be a
30:03
good place to stop. But they won't look like a CVS. It's not going to be a huge thing or what is the one in England like a booth right? It's
30:09
not going to be this huge emporium of things. No. Um and and we do have stores like that,
30:15
but you can't get your drugs there. You can't get any kind of drugs. I can get I can get vitamins at the um
30:21
at the grocery store. So, some minor like a concern has like vitamins and sort of things like that. But yeah, so I
30:28
mean it's they're very convenient and they're very helpful. So, it's a good place to stop if you're thinking like, I do need to see a doctor, but maybe I
30:34
just need somebody to give me the right drug and then maybe if I feel better tomorrow or the next day, I don't need
30:39
to go to the doctor. That's what the pharmacy is for. So, there's a kind of a there's a buffer there, which I think is really, really nice.
30:52
And they also have 24-hour ones. So, you know, when you're thinking about, oh my god, everything closes in Spain. The pharmacy is not like that. A lot of them
31:00
will, most of them will, but every area will have one that is open. So when you go into Google and you search for
31:06
pharmacy, if it is like three o'clock in the morning or something, there will be a pharmacy open somewhere close to you. If you're like where we are, it might be
31:13
the next town over. So you will have to get in your car to go to it, but it will be closeish to you. And you probably
31:20
have one in walking distance, I would imagine. Well, no, I've looked because there is one sometimes, but they do change. And
31:26
one time I had to look and it was across it was across the park. It was you know I would I you can walk it but like at
31:32
3:00 in the morning you don't want to walk it. So you Yeah. You know you're not that you would feel unsafe. You're like it's 3:00 I just want to get there
31:38
and get home. Plus feeling like crap. So really I need this thing now. I'm not in the in the process of getting my exercise at the
31:44
same time. Yeah. But it's very it's very that is very helpful I think. So that that is
31:49
kind of that is the kind of the three the three things that you have are your public health care system, your pharmacy
31:56
and your private health care system. And whatever combination of that you have will absolutely be great for whatever
32:04
you need. Um and then the schools, if you want to get into the schools, we kind of touched on that earlier. A lot of the private
32:10
schools have a nurse's office, like a proper one. So if your kid something happens, I mean obviously there might be something that happens that they then
32:17
have to go to the hospital, but if they're just like feeling sick or they got a like a sore head or a sore tummy or something, they will have been looked
32:23
at by a nurse before they send them home, which is also really nice. So you're not like picking them up to then take them to a you know whatever you
32:30
call the little care emergency care places or something. It's like no, at that point the nurse has been like, "Oh,
32:35
they seem fine. They just need a rest or whatever." Well, I'll say at my at my daughter's school, they actually have a doctor on
32:40
staff, too. He's not there every day. He's there like two or three days a week and does doctor things. Okay. And we had
32:47
trouble getting a prescription cuz the school had said, "What's going on with this prescription?" Cuz my daughter was
32:52
taking it at school. And I said, "Well, they switched it. We can't find it." And she said, "The doctor's in. I think they
32:58
have it at the pharmacy in the town where the school is." And she's like, "Me?" And the doctor wrote the prescription. They got the prescription
33:05
from the pharmacy. And then they sent me an email said, "Send your daughter with €30 for the prescription."
33:12
15 years or whatever it was and it was 30 cuz she we got we got her two month supply sent her with 30 cash tomorrow
33:18
and and I was like that is Yeah. Where am I? Oh, Spain. That's right. That's where we are.
33:25
Yeah. Ah, Spain. Spain. Yeah. No, I mean it's definitely I mean there's obviously a lot of
33:31
reasons why everybody ends up moving to a different country. One of them for us was the healthcare
33:36
because we had both lived in places where we had a better healthare system. So, I was fully aware of of the of the
33:43
downfalls of the American one and it was becoming very frustrating and we were like, we're getting older and this is
33:49
only going to get worse and more expensive and more ridiculous. So, you know, when we moved it was very
33:55
refreshing, but it still takes some time to get used to the fact that you have all these things that you never had properly. And I'm sure there's
34:02
people coming that had a really good job with a company that gave them really good health care and they're it's going
34:07
to be different for them. But for everybody else that's more like my experience, it's you know, we had paid
34:15
$3,000 for Zena to have a couple of stitches in her chin when she did one of those little kitty fall off the thing
34:22
and hit the chin, you know? Right. And it's like really that's, you know, right? It's a lot of money. No, it's a lot of
34:29
money for something. They're just putting a needle through it and ching. I was like, can I do that? Yeah. Like, honey, next time bite down
34:36
on a knife and I'm just going to So, yeah. So, I mean, I I I have to say
34:42
from my experience, it's been it's been kind of really amazing. And then the vision I did I did the I went to a
34:51
one of the places that sells like a shop that sells glasses. So you can get your proper medical vision thing done that
34:58
you need where they look into all your veins and stuff where they dilate your eyes and you can't you can't see the sun for seven
35:04
days. Yeah. But I went to like just a shop to get to see if I cuz I was starting to feel like I needed glasses and I was
35:09
just for reading and things and and I went to the went to the shop and this was several years ago and I I got a pair
35:14
of glasses for reading and then I just went back a couple of days ago thinking I mean it's got to have got worse,
35:20
right? So and it's a free eye exam every time cuz you're buying But this time I got the the eye exam and
35:26
I didn't need to change anything. So I didn't spend any money in the shop. So I literally just walk in, get the eye
35:31
exam. She's like, "Well, it's really fine. Nothing's really changed that much." I was like, "Really? Great." So that was like, "Oh, yay." But I didn't
35:38
have to buy anything. But you know, so there's I mean it's that's probably very similar to other countries. You can get those eye exams in all the places that
35:44
do the glasses. And so I mean that's yeah, very easy. And I'm going to IMED to get my eyes
35:50
checked in like two weeks or three weeks, whenever the kids go back to school. I have an appointment to get that done. Um,
35:56
so I mean I think that's, you know, I'm excited to do that. My daughter did that. She went in for her like physical
36:01
and when we went in with the vaccine record thing and they're like she can die exam too and
36:07
so they're like go across that door and make an appointment and and so that was that was pretty good. I mean I'm very
36:12
happy with that um that stuff that sister. Yeah. But I will say and I
36:18
think we've sort of had bit of the same experience here. you're no one's and I think it might be a little different if
36:23
I was really fully embedded into the um into the health care system possibly the
36:29
Spanish healthare system right but you're looking out for yourself no one's going to be coming up to you like I will
36:35
get emails from IMED sometimes and from Sanas my health insurance sometimes sort
36:41
of telling me things that they think are age appropriate for me right but I'm not
36:46
no one's like telling me oh it's been x amount of time since you had a mamogram you need to go in and do it. like you
36:53
have to be really on top of your own health care and making sure you're doing stuff cuz I haven't I will go back and
37:00
see the same doctor for things and it's nice to see the same doctor and and and all that but she's not calling I'm not
37:06
getting anything from her saying I haven't seen you how's it going like you know I'm in charge of making sure
37:11
that I get all my stuff done and Zena gets her stuff done you know what I mean like that is the system
37:16
that is it is a different it it's it's taken some time to get used to because I'm like wait there's No one tell no
37:23
one's kind of holding my hand, right? And there's also not a money-making operation. So, I feel like there's, you
37:28
know, back in the States, they're telling you, "You need the colonoscopy now." Now, now, because they're going to make a ton of money giving that
37:35
colonoscopy. And here, they're like, "Okay, remember you need to do it, but we're not going to remind you. You're
37:41
due a year, so remember to like make that appointment." You're like, "Well, I had one once. I'm never going
37:46
to want to remember to do that again." Well, and I will say speaking of that, the for the ladies out there, no, nobody
37:54
enjoys getting mamograms. Let's start there. But if you're going to have to have to do them, which you do, the way
38:00
they do it in Spain, so much better. I at the private hospital, so I don't know how they do it in the public hospital,
38:06
but in the private hospital, my experience in America was you go and get a mammogram and then at some point in
38:11
the future after you've had a heart attack, they'll send you a letter whether or not it was okay or not. Right? So in that in that time frame,
38:17
you're like, "Oh my god, whatever." Like, and it takes forever for these letters to get around. Right. Right. And then if something's wrong with it,
38:23
you get a letter saying there's something wrong with your mamogram. You need to come in for a sonogram. And then of course, you're really freaking out by
38:29
that point. Okay. Because and of course, you can't get an appointment for another two weeks or you're going somewhere and you it's
38:36
going to be a month before you can get that thing done, whatever is happening. it the the process is so stressful that
38:41
it just it it just creates so much more stress on top of the fact that you're having to do it and worrying about it
38:47
anyway. Here, what they do is you go in for a mamogram and then you literally go across the hall after the mammogram and
38:53
they do a sonogram with a doctor and then that doctor is looking at your sonogram and your mammogram and will
38:58
give you a full-on like result at that moment. Oh, like right there that that oh my god that's so you go in and within 45 minutes you
39:06
are done with the result and and then you go about your day go about your day with the information you have and I was like that was just it
39:13
would just actually took out so much stress from the scenario for me that I was just like that was worth it that was
39:20
worth moving just for that I'm still waiting for someone to come up
39:26
with a system that doesn't include a mamogram but since we have that's what we have you know I was like, so there
39:31
are also things that because they have a system like you were saying that isn't
39:36
related to making money in order as much this the way that they do things can be
39:42
much smoother and much easier. I think I I agree. I will say another thing that
39:48
I was really impressed by here and I haven't dealt with the um the public system as we know but in the private the
39:55
IMAD when they're like you have to get your blood work and getting your blood where like going is a bit of an issue
40:01
because they don't do it in the office right so you have to go to like their little their little blood bank cattle call room that you have to go to and
40:08
it's only open a certain amount of hours like in the morning so you kind of have to plan for it but you go there and it
40:14
is like an open hall audition kind of thing. I mean, I don't know if you have experience with that that there's like, you know, 100 people in the big
40:20
hospital. There's like 100 people waiting, but they have like 30 rooms and you're like, I'm going to be here all day and you're out in like 10 minutes
40:27
cuz they are they are getting those people in and out. And some of those results are like you're
40:33
getting them that night or the next morning. And and I was like, this is amazing. And they're coming through your app like you're an email. Check your
40:39
app. Here's your results are in. And then it shows you the results. And then I'll show you this one's still pending.
40:45
check in two days. You know, this this is a three-day one. But it was one of those things like, "Oh, now I know." And
40:50
then I can see because then they give you the little thing like this is they give you the parameters to let you know this isn't good and and you know that
40:56
you have to go to your doctor to follow up, but now you know before you go like where am I at, you know? No, the sheet that they give you is
41:02
amazing. Yeah. With the with the this you should be within this range and there's a star if you're not and then
41:07
this and then but I don't the other thing I don't I don't know maybe I don't know how bad it has to be for the doctor
41:13
to call you back. I that I have hopefully I never find out, but I'm assuming there is a point where the
41:18
doctor sees it and calls you back. I don't know. Well, in my experience, anytime I've had blood work, there's already been an
41:24
appointment scheduled for like 3 weeks or month or I've had it to where she's like you're coming in 7 months for your
41:29
physical. Okay? You know, so so they are taking care of you a little bit then. They are cuz what she'll say is make
41:35
sure you book your appointment in seven months and six months and make sure you get your blood work done. So, I have to
41:40
remember like I have to put in my calendar to remind myself because I'm not going to get a reminder, but she'll say, "Make sure you get your blood done
41:47
five days or three days before depending on like if there's going to be longer test." And then, so when I get there for
41:53
my physical, she's already got my blood work. So, it's not like an after. And then there's like if I need more blood work because I'm getting old and then
42:00
she'll say, "We have to get this or I don't like this. Let's wait three months and do this test again." But it I'm
42:05
going in a lot of times with the blood work already done. So, she's going to read me the go over the results as she's
42:13
he or she's checking my vitals. I think that's a different scenario. I have to say that I can't just go get
42:19
blood work done. I have to get an appointment and then they'll give me tell me to go get the blood work done
42:25
and then I then I have another appointment. So, I'll make two appointments. one, you know, and you can like make one appointment and then
42:31
another one for two weeks after or something, but I have to go to the first appointment to get the blood work prescription like
42:36
Oh, well, see, well, that's what I'm saying. She's already done it months in advance, so the prescription's already
42:41
in this system for 6 months later. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't had that experience where someone's been willing to do that and I But that's okay. I
42:47
mean, that's that's just probably a different scenario, a different doctor. So, that's like different health problems maybe. So it's
42:53
like no, you got to come in and then you because they, you know, they want to they also have to lock in, you know, I
42:59
went to the health system. I went to the public health um center here and I
43:05
wanted to talk to the nurse. I talked to the nurse about something and then the doctor came out and I got the thing
43:10
sorted and then I left. But she she locked in I saw in the app that she had locked in a an appointment for me that I
43:17
wasn't supposed to go to, but she needed a even cuz I went in and just spoke to her. She needed to show that she had met
43:23
talked to me. So I kind of she there was there was a an appointment in the app like for that. And I think the private
43:28
healthcare is kind of the same like she everybody needs to know that there's a an appointment that
43:34
you were spoken to and all this kind of thing. But the I love the thing that you can just go to IMAD between I think 7:30
43:40
and 11:30 or something any day. No one cares. You just check in at the front. They take your blood because well
43:45
whatever prescription they have and you're out of there. And I I think it's so convenient. I I just think that's the
43:50
greatest thing. But because I mean I think I feel like then as an adult I'm just spending my whole life making
43:56
appointments, doing things and so to have something where it's like just go in and do it whenever you want. I'm like
44:02
thank you. That's so great. You can you can work you can work your life around it, right?
44:07
Yeah. Something else we had brought up vaccines before. I think there is something we should talk about too is that some vaccines like your children's
44:15
vaccines, they'll have them in office, but then there's other vaccines kind of like your flu shots and co vaccines that
44:22
you have to go outside of the office. So they'll give you a prescription and you have to go to the So that's something
44:27
different here that people find surprising. You know, back in the States, we're used to going to the grocery store or CVS to get your some a
44:34
lot of your vaccines. You know, the ones that don't need like doctor like your shingles. Oh, I love the CVS system, right? You
44:39
just go in there and you sign in and you can sign in for later in the day and then come back for that appointment and
44:45
just get your flu vaccine. So convenient. And they're like, "Oh, wait an hour." Which then you're going up and down the aisles impulse buying buy $7 two bottle
44:52
2 liter 2 liter Cokes. Right. Stuffed toy. Yeah. Exactly.
44:59
But I had to, you know, I'm like, we we're a flu shot family and and so I it was surprising to me when the doctors
45:05
like go, "Here's your prescription. You got to go to the pharmacy." And I was like, "Okay." And I'm thinking the pharmacist, which is surprising to me
45:10
because our pharmacists here know so much yet can do so little because CVS,
45:15
those they're like just having someone, they put a white coat on anybody and they're shooting you up with a shot. Right. That's true. But the pharmacist, just so
45:22
everybody knows, they will pierce your ears. They will be helpful. So they are allowed to do piercings but just not
45:28
vaccinations. I do think there's a difference. I don't know what it is. I mean definitely the
45:34
vaccines that are not on schedule. I have a feeling if if you know if your
45:40
kid's nine and there's a vaccine for a 9-year-old and you're going into the appointment with the pediatrician and
45:47
they know that she's there for that that they might be able to have it possibly. Well, we just did the vaccine thing and
45:53
for Paloma, they had the vac I I was thinking what we had. She's well, she needs this and this vaccine. I was like,
46:00
all right, so do I get that at the pharmacy and then do I have to come back cuz let me tell people what the our
46:06
original experiences was getting our flu vaccines. Our first fall, they're like, you have to go to the pharmacy, get the prescription, and then come back here or
46:13
go to a cen uh not a the salude center or something like that and they will
46:18
administer the shot. I was like, "That's a lot of work to get just a flu shot." But when we went in for her vaccines,
46:25
like, "Oh, no. We have X, Y, and Z." The one they didn't have was the one that
46:30
she was supposed to be on schedule for in the States, but it was the one that So, that's what I was saying. If you're on schedule for something and it's
46:36
something that you're going to have, they will have it. This is when we when we're talking about having to go pay for them and come back. So, that is when
46:43
you're off schedule or you're doing something special. So I took Zena down to the center de Salude for her vaccines
46:49
for the HB. They just did the ones that she needed there and then they had them all there. No problem. But then the
46:54
second HPV if she wanted it because now that's optional. They don't have it. I would have to go get that and pay for it
47:00
and bring it in if if we wanted to do that because that's not now like
47:06
required because you can just do one. So if you I'm sure if I made an appointment to go get a flu shot at the center
47:13
delude, they would have it. I wouldn't have to go to the pharmacy. And do you think do they carry it? I think that's what I'm saying. I think
47:19
they would carry regular things at a regular time. Well, the private hospital does not I
47:24
know IMED never carries the flu shots. So that is a Right. But they had the they had the ones that preliminated for
47:30
they had the inoculations, right? Like the the the the keep you alive. Everyone's got to get the I guess the
47:36
flu shot. But the flu shot also is is is not a mandatory thing. So yeah. So that's so
47:41
that so we're seeing a pattern here which is if you're off schedule or it's something that not everyone is going to have they're not going to do it. They're
47:46
not going to hold it I think. Right. Right. So but you know that's I think very it's
47:52
it seems very organized and those are the things that that we've done through the through the regular center to salude
47:57
and it's always been very smooth um for that experience for sure. So, we've I've
48:02
kind of getting I feel like what we're doing and this what a lot of people might end up doing as well, especially if you're not fluent in Spanish, I
48:09
think, is you have your private health care and you have your public health care and you probably gradually move
48:16
into the public health care system more as you get to know the system and you get to know the doctors and you
48:21
understand more Spanish because it's especially where we are, there's very little English spoken. So,
48:27
if I have something really complicated to talk about, I just don't feel comfortable getting prescribed something
48:32
for something that I'm not understanding what's going on, you know, right? And and the private hospitals do have an array of staff that speak
48:39
different languages and when you call up and you can just say I need to speak to someone in English and a lot of times
48:44
the person answer suddenly speaks English. I mean they just switch into English but they you know they are used
48:49
to an international clientele. So they they they do that right and that it's very nice and they will help you find a
48:56
doctor that speaks English. So when you're calling, you're like, "My doctor said I or I need to see a
49:02
gastroenterenterologist that speaks English." And then they'll say, "Well, we only have one at this center, not
49:07
that center." So sometimes you have to go to different hospitals if you need to speak someone English. I do wish they would fix it on the app
49:13
because I would like to be able to do that without calling. But both my health my my health insurance and IMED, both of
49:19
them I can call up and ask for English, no problem whatsoever. Now, there was something that I had to do. I was doing
49:25
an allergy test at IMED and there was something that I that they didn't do
49:30
there and I h and I was um sent over to the to the Spanish hospital to get a
49:36
breathing like thing evaluation thing done for my allergies. So that was there
49:41
are possibly things but it was still covered completely by my insurance but I I couldn't do it there. I had to go and
49:48
you know make an appointment with the with the Spanish hospital and get it done there. M um so it's not they don't do everything but
49:54
I think and that maybe goes back to some of the more serious bigger things. They just they're maybe not really equipped
49:59
for that necessarily, but it's one of my daughters needed a blood test that the hospital didn't do. And it
50:07
was and it turned out it was like a birth blood test, too. So they're like, "We don't do that. Only newborns get this blood test."
50:13
And I was like a newborn. You're like a newborn. But they're like they were ruling some stuff out and so they're
50:20
like, "You have to go." And then I was it was the pediatrician was like I am also a doctor with that so give me her
50:26
SIP number and I will arrange all of it for you. They ended up doing the blood test at at the private hospital. They
50:32
ended up they ended up doing the test at the private hospital but she had to get it arranged for so we had to go back but
50:38
it was like really nice. She's like I can get that done for you. Don't worry but yeah what's her SIP number?
50:44
Totally get it done right. I mean it's and that was a that was a benefit for her having a SIP number even though even though you were doing it through the
50:50
private health center you needed to go to a public hospital and to do that I think you needed the SIP card to get
50:57
registered because it it is it's kind of like a new birth like the SIP it's like a Spanish healthcare blood test thing right so
51:03
it's like they needed whatever that is for it to come through that system versus Yeah. I think that was really good advice you had at the beginning. Just
51:09
sign up because you never know when you're going to need it and the last thing you want to be doing is scrambling for something like that in an emergency.
51:16
It's just not necessary. So, you're going to come here, you're going to get your padron, you're going to find a place to live, you're going to, you
51:22
know, sign your kids up for school if you have kids. You're going to be doing these things. Just add sign up for your SIP card. It's super easy. You take your
51:30
padron down to the center de Salude and they just do it. And then you'll get a card that that is specifically for
51:36
somebody that's not paying into the system. And then if you ever get to the point where you're paying into the system, you
51:42
just take all your autonomy into the system and then they switch the card and then you get like a nice
51:48
plastic one. Not the not the skimpy little paper the plasty the plasty coated um not even
51:56
laminated. You get a real plastic one. I get a real plastic car without
52:02
which is funny. Yeah. So, I think it's, you know, I there's a that's I think good advice just to get just if you're
52:08
planning on living here and staying here, just get into the system. Um, and it will make things a lot easier at some point for sure.
52:14
And I and I don't know about your experience. I mean, there has been a few doctors where we've had to wait in the
52:20
waiting room for like 30, 40 minutes, and that tends to be a super specialist one. And it was really worse the first
52:26
couple months after the Dana like that week they were closed like messed them up for months appointments wise. Um but
52:34
there for the most part my GPS most of my and most of my other doctors were pretty much in and out. I'm not like oh
52:40
I have a doctor's appointment and we're gone for No, it's been really organized. I mean like you said occasionally
52:45
I mean I generally this has just been a rule of thumb for as long as I can remember. try and make appointments
52:51
first thing in the morning because things can get less backed up and with the best intentions you are things are going to be more backed up
52:57
later in the day that's for sure. Um, so we do that. Um, or right after siesta if that doctor
53:04
we get so much done during siesta, let me tell you. Um, yeah, because also theies are open like the the right ones
53:11
are anyway that there's always one open. And then I think one other thing we might want to touch on, it's it's not something that I um fortunately have a
53:18
lot of experience with or maybe I should and I haven't, but mental health and the services in that regard. I don't know if
53:23
you've had or you have friends that have had experience. I myself am I am someone that goes to therapy. I'm a proud
53:30
therapisty payer therapist payer.
53:35
So I'm still using my therapist through Zoom from back in the states. My insurance I was like I should try to
53:41
find someone here. My experience with who was on my insurance plan. I have since switch insurance. So I'm going to
53:47
try again. The English speakaking they had like four that were local. The rest
53:52
were like in towns 30 40 miles away. And so I was like, there was a very limited
53:58
access to English- speakaking therapists. And when I went on their websites, I was like, "Yeah, they're not
54:03
going to be for me." Like I could just tell like what they covered or what they're like, you could you can just tell like a therapist is like dating,
54:10
right? You got to you can It's a love at first sight. But you could do if you're doing Zoom into America, you could zoom into
54:15
Madrid, I suppose. Was that an option? I mean, I guess, but I've already had my therapist. Sounds like that just seems
54:20
like a lot to overcome where I'd rather be someone local except you're paying for the American
54:25
one and you wouldn't have to pay for the one here. So I think the advice there is make sure you keep your therapist while
54:32
you figure out if you can or not switch here. So make a plan financially and
54:37
like with your therapist and and your financial planning and your day and everything to maintain the one you have
54:44
while you figure it out because if you don't speak Spanish you will be very limited for sure.
54:50
And if you do speak Spanish I'm sure you can find somebody but it's still going to be a new therapist. So it's still going to take you time and
54:55
and I will say I'm sorry in the my experience as well here to there are a
55:00
lot a lot of English speaking therapists here. They don't take insurance. So, you're going to be paying that money anyway.
55:05
Oh, I see. So, that's an option as well. So, that's Yeah. So, I've looked in that as well and oh, I've got this therapist, but my
55:11
insurance isn't covering it. And I'm like, well, and for what I pay for my therapist isn't
55:17
much different than what I'd pay here. So, I was like, then I might be buying 10 sessions with five different
55:22
therapists that are never going to work out. So, I might as well just keep who I've got and keep going. But, I'll keep trying. Well, I was going to say just go for the
55:28
go for the enjoyment of it. Maybe you'll learn something else from that therapist. And you can have two therapists. I don't know. The more the
55:35
marrier. Well, then I won't have time for the podcast. That's true. This is your therapy now.
55:41
This is my therapy. I think um on that, should we end on
55:46
maybe some We have just some practical tips. Kind of wrap things up in a bow of advice. Maybe like 911. Is it 911 here?
55:53
Yep. It's it's don't dial 911. It's 112 is
55:58
your urgent, you know, emergency. And I have had to use it and they will speak. Yes. So, we lived in an apartment
56:04
before we moved into our house and there was a really lovely old lady that lived below us and she only spoke Valenciano.
56:12
So, I had no very little. She wanted to speak with me all the time because she was one of those people that would go down and sit at the front door
56:17
and she was super sweet. And I was like, and my Spanish really then was pretty terrible. And I was like, I just feel so
56:24
bad. I would love to just sit sit and chat with you. And then I said to the landlord one day, I was like, I just feel really bad. Like, she's oh, she's
56:31
only speaks Valenciano. I was like, "Okay, so I feel I have no choice." I just I there's only so much you can
56:38
do, right? And then one day she obviously something happened and I could hear tapping and things and I was like
56:44
something's going on and I knocked on the door. She didn't she was like help or something and I was like oh my god. And then call like calling everyone does
56:50
anyone have a key and didn't have didn't work out. So, um I ended up calling um
56:56
112 and they I said I have to speak in English because I can't explain this in
57:02
Spanish. And they yeah, they found somebody and then they sent over the the fire people and the police and everybody
57:09
and they ended up like using our balcony to like sort of repel down lower and
57:16
they were like on the balcony outside like Zena's bedroom and she was just sleeping and I was like, "Okay, well, she's sleeping. there's no need to wake
57:22
her up for this. Of course, she wakes up in the middle of there's like five firemen out on the balcony trying to get
57:28
like down. And so it all ended up okay, but I think it's important to know that you can still help people here and you
57:35
can, you know, call 112 and get help for somebody or yourself without stressing
57:40
out about the Spanish. Okay. What's another tip? I would say always carry your SIP and health card. I mean, I have them also
57:46
photoed and I have them in my notes on my phone, which can also work. Sometimes it's okay just to have the, you know,
57:52
just to have the the number of the card and download the apps because they the you can do everything in the app. And
57:58
also at IMAD when you check in, they have a waiting room on the app that gives you a number and you then they
58:04
don't give you any cards or anything or any number, right? So, it's all in the app for that and they're moving more and more to the
58:10
app because I haven't gotten a card even when I've gone to the front desk. They're like, it's in your app. I'm like, oh, okay.
58:15
I'm like, but I want the cute little card to hand the doctor saying this is my number. Yeah. So, you will need to like go in,
58:20
you will need to show the doctor that you have that number so they know they've got the right person connected to the right number. So, um it it does
58:27
work really well. So, just just download the apps and keep your cards on your phones and everything. Um that's my
58:34
advice. I I concur with that advice. And also, if you're coming from another country,
58:39
and if there's anyone listening that's coming from a country that doesn't have the the alphabet system that we have,
58:46
perhaps try and get your medical records translated or you will want to try and find a doctor here that speaks your
58:53
language because when we were doing the vaccination thing, the doctor was like, you know, I was like, I'm really sorry
58:59
this is all in English. Even though she was speaking English, she's like, oh, no, no, no. I' I've had to deal with lots worse, you know. Okay. So I was,
59:05
you know, they're they're used to English, you know, but I think some of these other, you know, other places, I
59:11
think if you can have a prof, if if you have any kind of medical issues and you really want that medical record to be
59:17
dealt with properly, have somebody professionally maybe translate it into Spanish for you so that you know it's
59:23
correct rather than assume that you're going to come across like a Greekeaking
59:28
doctor here that can do it for you, you know? Right. That's my advice for the language thing.
59:34
Be prepared. I think that's good advice. Um, but I think overall, I think to to sort
59:41
of tie it up, I mean, I think we've both had really good experiences with it. I've been incredibly happy, much much
59:47
happier with our health care situation here than I ever was in the States. For sure.
59:52
I'm I'm very pleased. I I I was lucky with our health insurance in the States for the most part. No, put it this way.
59:58
I was very lucky with our last health insurance that we had in the states. Okay, that was hard to leave. I mean, that was
1:00:05
hard to leave the states, but that was a hard system to leave cuz once I got into that, I was like, "Oh, this is how life could be." But I had many years before
1:00:12
of like unless unless my foot has been completely sought off. I'm not going to
1:00:17
the hospital because I can't afford it. I'll just walk with a limp for the rest of my life because that'll be cheaper. Yeah. And forget preventative care. I had a
1:00:24
wonderful doctor in the states, but it, you know, that was sort of half covered and she did sort of homeopathic and
1:00:30
and she was a doctor doctor, too. And that was a really nice combination that I love that I haven't really found here
1:00:35
so much. But I have also found that the doctors here are a little less writing prescriptions for everything. I mean, so
1:00:42
I think overall all the doctors are a bit more like preventative. Let's not do let's not be dramatic, you know? Um, so
1:00:48
I think overall it is a little leans a little bit more in that way that I from my experience. But yeah, it's been it's
1:00:55
been good. I concur. Again, I'm concurring. It's being so agreeable and I don't understand and I don't like it.
1:01:04
I'm just saving you up. It's I'm tricking the other shoe. Oh, I like to get you when you're your
1:01:11
weakest, you know, when your your defenses are down. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Yeah.
1:01:16
Well, Tanya, as always, it's a pleasure. Absolutely. Yeah, that was fun. Gabbin with you about these things and
1:01:23
um till the next time everyone ask.
1:01:28
Hey, can't get enough of us, follow us on Instagram and Facebook at a podcast and on our website.com, which we will be
1:01:35
updating with exciting new things as we grow. We would love for you to message us with any topics you would like to hear about.
1:01:42
See you next time. Bye.