Pediatrician Visits in Japan

April 17, 2017

March flew by and I cannot even believe we are half way through April already. Vacation was a whirlwind. Packing, traveling and unpacking was quite the time consuming challenge. Life has finally started to slow down and I feel us getting back into the normal rhythm of things again. Everyone knows that feeling of coming back to reality, its bittersweet. I still have a few loads of laundry to catch up on but I’m blaming our lack of a dryer for that.

Since Lucy was three months we have been going to our pediatrician regularly. We have a booklet of what to expect at each visit and it’s been pretty accurate each time. That doesn’t make the appointments any easier. In fact, I dread them. I’m going to let you in on a little bit of who I am. Believe it or not, I don’t like to deviate from the plan. That might sound strange coming from a mama who gave birth in Japan. But if you know me you know I like to plan. I like to think about what’s going to happen and process it in my head. I think about how I’m going to feel or what I’m going to say. I think about how things might look or play out when they happen. I think too much. This works out well when I am at the store looking for things to decorate my house with or in the grocery store looking for ingredients to make meals. However, when it comes to healthcare in another country, this is an difficult path to walk.

I know a decent amount about pediatrics and I thought out what it would be like to take Lucy to her appointments, the questions I would like to ask, the stats that we would receive each appointment, written down on a cute little card. I wanted the reassurance that I was doing a good job and feeding her well. I thought about snapping a picture of her up on that big exam table in her diaper waiting for our doctor. Well you probably know where I’m going with this, pediatric appointments are very different here in Japan. Right from our first appointment my expectations were tossed out the window. I don’t want to give the false impression that Lucy isn’t getting awesome care because she is. It’s just not done the way I imagined it would be and that’s hard for me.

Japan has universal healthcare. Everyone is required to have insurance but the government pays around 70% of the cost before patient is responsible. This may not sound that great to my American friends, as the costs there are really high. But here, the healthcare costs are usually very low. This leaves the patient with a very inexpensive bill or no cost at all. Sounds great right? It really has been! Throughout my pregnancy, birth and now Lucy’s visits we have paid a very small out of pocket expense. I should also probably mention that Japanese people have the longest life expectancy in the entire world. I’m sure that has something to do with the quality of their health care.

Universal healthcare also means lines. There is one appointment time for a group of babies that are all around the same age. From there its first come first serve. We generally get there early and are one of the first ones in to try to avoid a crazy wait time. You can understand then why it’s a game of speed. People undress their babies and have them ready to get shots or whatever they need done. Your name is then called and you go back. The doctor asks us if anything is wrong, listens to Lucy front and back, gives her shots and we are back in the waiting room. We wait 20 minutes and are on our way. At one month and four months Lucy had what I think of as a more traditional appointment. She was weighed and measured and we were given her stats as far as growth. Sean always goes with us and fills out the forms and answers questions. I need him on these days. It’s always an emotional day for me and I feel lost and anxious.

Lucy is growing and I feel like she has a new trick every day. It’s exciting to watch her try new things. We just started introducing food and she is super into it for 3-5 bites then purses her lips together and grins at us. She has figured out how to do an inchworm like action and scoot herself across the room for a toy. She sobs when she is overtired and completely loses her mind if you don’t let her sleep. She still loves mornings, baths and gives the best smiles. I adore her.

It’s absolutely overwhelming to think we could screw up our kids by doing what is recommended. Or that if we deviate we could be putting them at even higher of a risk. I have learned that sometimes it doesn’t look like what we expect it to. Sometimes nothing goes as planned. But that’s being a parent right? I never expected to love Lucy as much as I do. I never planned to laugh so hard at her funny faces. I never imagined I would freely sacrifice myself for her like I do. It’s messy but it’s absolutely the best.