My experience with national health care

I just have to report a quick story here about my experience yesterday using the National Health service here. In light of all the controversy about public health care in the states it seems particularly important. For anyone who is worried about it -- I relay this story--- pass it on.

I woke up feeling the onset of mastitis-- infection caused by nursing. We have been working on getting Rhys to sleep through the night and it has sort of thrown things off. Anyway -- I have had it once before and wanted to try to nip it in the bud quickly. I called the doctor's office and asked for an appointment as soon as possible and they had a cancellation and said I could be seen that day. I hadn't even mentioned why I needed the appointment. I went in and waited about 5 minutes and saw the doctor. He was lovely, asked lots of questions, gave me an examination and diagnosed early onset of mastitis and prescribed penicillin. I was in and out in under ten minutes with prescription in hand. When I dropped it into the nearest pharmacy just up the street the pharmacist informed me that I didn't have to pay because I has a child under a year! I was flabbergasted! Apparently all prescriptions for mothers with children under a year are free.
I said "Are you sure" and he said "Yes!"

Wow! If this is the health care folks in the USA are worried about ---- bring it on!

Beebsie TV

Since I have a couple of months to catch up on in terms of our arrival here I am going to be back-tracking at first with stories. One of the cutest from our early days here illustrates the world of a four year old to the letter. We were temporarily staying at our old ministers rental flat for a few weeks before our own rental house was available and I had to spend a chunk of time making phone calls to schools, the bank, car dealerships etc. so Liam spent a bit too much time probably watching the television. One day he came running to find me and said " Mommy -- they said it's Beebsie (our nickname for him) TV! ( Actually of course it was BBC TV). I think he was super excited that they had named a TV channel just for him!

Our First Blog posting.

Well- Here we are entering the world of blogging in order to keep everyone up to date on the events in Liam and Rhys's lives (and of course Hedley and Emily's as well). Moving to Belfast was a big step and so this is one way we can try to keep in touch with people. I will try and keep them brief and snappy! The boys have both adjusted very well so far to being out of the USA and we have been lucky to have enrolled Liam in school which he loves. He does miss people though- especially his friends as you can imagine. But Liam being the gregarious boy that he is has started to make new ones already and has even had a few playdates. He is a very resilient boy. Rhys is starting to crawl and even has two teeth. He too has been very easy-going and is only upset when tired or when he is waking in the night and mommy and daddy let him lie on without getting him up. ( We are trying to teach him to sleep through the night). We are blessed to have two wonderful children and the opportunity to have them experience another culture for a wee while.