Carry on doctor - part 6

You'd think by now we would have mastered getting to an appointment on time, at the correct building and being seen within a reasonable waiting period. YOU'D THINK!

A quick update from the last visit. We found out that we couldn't change maternos to the one in Vecindario because we live in the wrong district, so we are stuck with the non-materno materno in Arguineguin. I saw him last week and he was very pleased with me, I'd put on 10kg (that's a stone and half in old money, or 21 lbs in American) and he said my body had taken to the pregnancy very well. Yay gold star for me!

The following day I had more bloods taken, Mr. C will never accompany on these appointments as he turns green at the sight of a needle. The results are supposed to inform the next clinic appointment.

So on Tuesday we take the day off and trundle up to Vecindario and arrive ten minutes before our appointment time. We get to the health centre and are very surprised to see a half empty car park, no chance of being blocked in today, but actually the health centre has been closed and we have to go along to El Doctoral, the next town along.
Off we go with expletives from Mr. C. He stops and asks directions and we find the health centre but the road is blocked off so we take a scenic route through El Doctoral and get to the health centre 20 minutes after our due time.

Here the lady tells us that we are in the wrong place, we should be in the centre at Vecindario. We assure her it is shut, she assures us it is open, Mr. C and I consult and ask again and then she explains that the gynecological centre is not the same as the health centre, it is in a connecting building.
So while the health centre is closed the gynecological centre is not.
We drive back over to Vecindario and find the entrance we should have been using all along and are only half an hour late for our appointment, so not at all late in Spanish time. However there are already four women waiting ahead of us.
We wait a further hour and a half and get called in in the order of the appointments so even if we had been on time we wouldn't have seen the doctor any earlier.

I get weighed, scanned and prodded. They tell us they haven't got the blood test results as they haven't got the test serial number and for them to get it we have to go to the clinic in the Arguineguin explain why Vecindario don't have the results and get them to sort it out. Cos you know that's what you want to do as a patient sort out a health services problems for them.

So that's a two hour delay from our appointment time and still they have lost my blood test results - it does make you wonder.

Fortunately Baby C's head is in the correct position for her upcoming entrance to the world - quite a relief for me. However they said she is below the weight scale - only just - but neither Mr C or I are exactly heavy weights so we aren't too worried about that.

I now have to keep a daily diary of Baby C's movements and if she doesn't move for 24 hours I have to call an ambulance, fun. Neither Mr. C or I are too sure if this is because Baby C is little or just something everyone here has to do. I've never heard of this before and at first it seemed a bit of a hassle, but the first morning I woke up, Baby C wriggled around a bit and then got hiccoughs, so I had her ten movements in about five minutes flat. So now I just use the first half hour I wake up as she is pretty lively then.

Mr. C and I left that appointment wondering if it is us or the Spanish system that is rubbish. Generously I would say it is half us and half them, but we have decided that if we ever do this again we will do so in England or France. Mind you I think we should just get through this first one before making any plans for siblings!