Houston Health Care Mecca part II - Experiencing the hospital in the American way

Now that I am on sick leave and in strict bed rest, I will have time to finish all the blog drafts I have have stored for the day when I have time :)
But first, let me share with you how I got to this point. I will spare you from details but my very first hospital experience ever is definitely worth sharing. As it was great!

I am having the private project called pregnancy in progress. The ride has been bit bumpy but more of that, and pregnancy, in my other blog I will start writing (LINK).

So few weeks back my project manager's mind & body was in the mode of trying to accelerate things. In project environment any kind of acceleration is good and I am professionally known to turn the toughest projects around and bring them to goal in schedule. Which often means motivating the team to push hard and find the means to accelerate where ever possible. But as everyone with common sense knows, acceleration does not work well for pregnancies. Which meant that my doctor, Dr Michael Piegari, wanted to check me in to the hospital for expert team check and second opinion on what the options are to secure the rest of the pregnancy.

I thought I was going just for a quick check to the Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital but little did I know. I was informed while waiting for my doctors orders to have reached the hospital that at minimum I would stay over the night.

I was brought to my room....Yes, I got my very own room!
I have not been myself in hospital ever before but have visited plenty of friends and family in Finnish hospitals. Unless you are in the intense care unit, you normally do not get your own room. In the best case you are sharing it with 8 - 10 people. Which can be good from social perspective but in such cases you also share the tv and do not really have much control of the noise level. So, getting my own room was surprising me totally.

I got settled to my hospital gown and to my bed, which felt comfy enough. My doctor came to check that everything is okay with me and guided me little bit about the expert team and their way of working. Again, having a doctor that actually shows that he cares for his patients...priceless! After the talks with him I was pretty much in the relax mode, ready to experience my very first time in the hospital.

Next scene could have been directly from the Dr House tv series. I got the expert team and all the residents (medical students) taking over my room and surrounding my bed. There were 7 of them in total, which made me smile. As I was just thinking:"If there are those seven plus my doctor taking care of getting my body out of the acceleration mode....yeah, it will well taken care of." Just like in Dr House they asked all kinds of questions and I explained what I think had happened and what I had sensed.

What I liked about this whole thing was that everyone was very clear in communication. Things were explained thoroughly, I was given the understanding of the options and why something was considered a better option than another. I was asked 100 times if I had any questions, nobody was in a rush to get out of my room. All that left me pretty much with no other choice than relax and take it easy.

I got really funny reaction from the expert team 2 days later, when they asked if all is okay and I have been taken care by the nurses and gotten food. I shared that on top of everything else, I was excited that one can order the meals from a room service and the food was actually good. The look on their face was worth seeing. I could see that one of them was checking if I was still having any of the Magnesium Sulfate drops coming through the IV (makes you super relaxed) or I really coherently meant what I said. I mean...room service in a hospital! It is a small thing but makes the experience again so much more personalized.

Some of my friends in Europe commented, when I shared with them about where I had been past few days:"Oh, you must have been so stressed and in panic about having to go to hospital!"
Yes, had I been anywhere else than in Houston, where I was in one of the leading hospitals for risk pregnancies...I sure would have. But like said, this experience was very positive. The staff around me (my doctor, the hospital's expert team, the nurses) were all very professional and treated me like a human. The night nurse, while starting the medication during the first night and needing to monitor for the rest of the shift gave great advice on how to prepare to tolerate the pain during labor without extra medication. She was definitely making me feel like I was in good hands and I did not mind getting injection at 1 am or staying awake for monitoring.

Two weeks later...I am spending my days on the couch or in bed but so far with success. The body has gotten off from the acceleration mode. I take each day with gratitude, as that is one day more for the baby to "bake in the oven" and increasing the chance for a good start.

Since this pregnancy was determined to be a bumpy ride in a very literal meaning, I sure am happy to go through it in Houston. Surrounded by the top hospital and medical experts. As my doctor put it well: "Taking care of the mother is still easier, even in risk situations. As adult body gives more time to react. Taking care of premature infant or infant at risk....then it is down to handful of minutes to react and take the right actions."

Houston the magical mecca of health care

There is nothing better than to go to a doctor's visit, which you might NOT have been looking forward so much and come out of it totally amazed. Wondering at the same WHY and HOW can you be feeling happy walking out from e.g. dentist. After a full check and tooth fix.

This seem to happen each time when I go to see a doctor in Houston.

My first dentist visit was really a surprise. I was not looking forward to it. I had done several dentist visits in Finland, at a private medical hub, prior to moving to Houston. None of them were pleasant. Also, it was not possible to get everything done in one go. You had to go 2-3 times. First to get initial check done and then separately to get the night guard preparation done (yes, I have inherited my mother's habit to grind teeth while sleeping) and yet another visit to fix one tooth. Though the doctor was generally neutral and in Finnish terms one could call her pleasant, since she was not trying to scold me on what I should or should not do. But each visit there got blood pressure rising and me thinking how amazing place the world would be, if one would never need to visit a dentist...ever.

Yes, it is my hands...I know and I am generally keen to look after the well being of my teeth. But even if one would not need to do anything, one still needs to go once / twice a year for the check-up. Alone the thought of going to a dentist...no matter how routine the visit would be, was unpleasant.

With that background I went for my first dentist visit in Houston. From start to finish I was confused. "Am I really at the dentist or this is a dental day spa?"
Customer service was clearly visible from the moment I stepped through the door. They showed me around the facility and explained the process. Then I was seated in my chair, where there was no bright light shining to my eyes but a TV greeted me. I could watch what ever channel I wanted.

The doctor came to greet me and explained what will happen next. X-rays will be taken to get a thorough view of the teeth and their condition. Then, the hygienist will go through and clean the teeth, checking if any daily mitigation actions can be recommended. After which the doctor has a view of what needs to be done. Only for the X-ray I had to move away from my chair, the rest was me enjoying the comfy chair and the specialists moving from one customer "loft" to another. Before anything was done, it was discussed with me and confirmed that I am okay with it.
One hour and they had done everything within one visit and in a way, making me walk out of the place with this idiotic smile on my face. If I had any stickers to put on my forehead, I would have put one saying:"I do not know how it happened, but I love my dentist!"

The best part was that I paid less for the dentist visit here, than I did initially in Finland. The company health package in Finland covered only part of the dentist visit. Here with the company health care insurance, the coverage is major. From the total bill my share was 1/10 if even that.

I thought that okay...that might have been just beginner's luck. My overly optimist attitude kicking in.
Nope, by now, having visited different doctors, all I can say is that I like going to a doctor nowadays!

Not that each time it would be just good news but how the doctors treat one here is very different than in Finland. I had one excellent doctor in Finland, who I trusted and he always showed that what ever the cause may be, he will do all he can to get to the root of it. In so many other cases, at a private medical hub, I got the response:"Well I do not know what is causing the symptoms, so go home. You can book a new appointment if the pain is still there in a few weeks time".

Doctors here do not solely focus on throwing the medical facts to your face and wishing you a good day. Even when there is tougher news to share with the patient, the doctor understands to take into consideration how the message will be received. They seem to be still human and know how to communicate in such a way that you are not racing out of the clinic in sheer panic.

One is also more cautious here on not starting to speculate anything until they have medical facts to support the thoughts. I prefer that approach. I know from own experience and some friends, who went to doctor in Finland due to some complex symptoms. Walking out of the first visit with the assumption that it may be cancer before any tests were performed! In all the cases cancer was not even close to the rather harmless final result. What that statement caused though was a world collapsing for the patient and huge emotional stress. Normally, what ever you may have right then, major emotional stress is most likely not going to improve the situation.

I had to receive once one of those not-so-pleasant news to share here. This was after the doctor had all the medical facts analyzed and solid proof of the outcome. The doctor sat next to me, we talked. He took a tissue box and put his arm around me, at the same time saying that I would come out of the challenge as a winner and bounce back. He allowed me to cry and showed empathy.

The fact that I got to cry there and then, allowed me to deal with the first shock with a professional right next to me. Once I got home, things did not seem so bad anymore and I had taken already my Finnish SISU out to the full extent and decided that it will all turn out to positive.

What was even more amazing...two weeks later the doctor called and checked how I was doing.
With all that he showed me that he is not just an excellent professional but he truly cares for his patients, not only during the sunny but also during rainy days.

Research makes the difference though. The best approach is to check the pages, which rank the doctors based on customer feedback. Then check if they accept your insurance. If one picks a random doctor from the list without checking the customer feedback, you may get a rather "Finnish experience".

When the power of choosing a doctor is given to the patients, it seems to make the difference.
I can only say: if you need a great doctor or refreshingly pleasant doctor's visit, welcome to Houston! :)

From the "Airport hell" to "Ticket to 7th heaven"

Changing the home country is never easy, from an emotional roller coaster to roaring and running through airports....it is not far from feeling like you were dumped into the airport hell.
But what if there was an angel that offered you a ticket to 7th heaven, wiping all the previously mentioned away?

Exhausted from the previous day packing the house. Neither sleeping so well due to all the anxiety, excitement and everything in between....at 5 am we packed ourselves and the luggage into the loan car. Unfortunately we had not been able to get flights to same plane. I dropped my fiance off, checked my bags in, took the loan car to the car dealer.

The morning energy package was to meet with one of my best friend, my honeymelone, (she is like a sister to me really) at the airport. Previous evening she had been texting and asking about my departure time. I thought it would be more for curiosity but never thought she would be keen to come to the airport early in the morning. But I guess that makes best friends to be the best friends...they do things, which seem crazy for others :o) (Well my 3 best friends....they are really wonderful crazy bunch. But I come back to that some day later)

But in all seriousness....How many of you would drive in cold and dark weather at 7 am to the airport to have coffee with someone before going to work? Nope, not seeing to many hands up there in the crowd.

It was the best morning tea/coffee I have had for a while. We babbled on with everything between earth and sky, with the energy and happiness which one would have at a after work meet up :o)
Even the "tear control" process was in place when saying good-bye to each other (I lost the control later but she was not there to see it). It felt so nice to walk through the gate after such a nice "bon voyage" morning session.

Like said, that was the high point of my morning....as from there on things seemed to just get crazier by the minute for next hours. At the gate, when it got closer to boarding time, announcement was made to inform that the SAS flight crew was had not yet arrived. Some of us, mainly Finnish passangers, were joking that the Swedes had gone to celebrate pikkujoulut (little Christmas party) night before. (Those not familiar with the pikkujoulu traditions see HERE)

But our joking stopped pretty fast when they informed little later that the crew will not make it in time for most of us to be able to make it to our connection flights. At that point the verbal statements around me changed to the traditional Finns disliking Swedes expressions:"Those Swedes cannot even get one flight to take off in time. Should let the Finns handle it, there would be less talk and no problems..." (It is a never ending love-hate relationship that exists between Finns and Swedes and it goes both ways)
Luckily they made the full announcement in Finnish first, which gave us Finns the head start to take over the service desk with the request to reroute. After all it was just 4 days till Christmas Eve and any day lost in transit was tagged with a personal price tag, loosing quality time with family.

I got lucky and was rerouted to Lufthansa flight, via Fankfurt to Washington and there on to my new home.As the airlines do not cooperate with each other, I got the privilege to pick-up my luggage and check it in again at Lufthansa counter. All this took me an hour and lot of running around.

When I had done that, sat down to take a breath...I realized that the whole rerouting meant arriving in the middle of the night without keys and forcing my fiance to wake up, who had arrived just 6 hours prior to that.
It made me sad to think that my fiance had just flown the same route some hours earlier and was heading straight from Frankfurt to Houston. I would be traveling alone the same route....hours later.

I called him (well in time before he was due to get on board of his flight from Frankfurt) to share the news and humbly giving the heads up for the need to have him to open the door for me in the middle of the night....
He was so good about it and promised to come to pick me up even from the airport and check my flight situation to see if there were any delays.

I thought to myself....I am surrounded with the best craziest people. First my best friend coming in the crack of dawn to see me off and now my fiance willing to come pick me up from the airport in the middle of the night (after he has just gotten settled in home after 18h travel and with 8 hours time difference).

The flight to Frankfurt arrived in such a tight time that I ran through the airport...the last thing I wanted to do was to miss the connection flight. I managed while running grab a bottle of my fiance's favorite chocolate liquor (Mozart dark), which I had not seen in US. I negotiated in the Russian style to jump the queue before a huge Chinese tourist group. I made sure to make an innocent face and explain that my flight is taking off in few minutes. It all worked well and they were happy to let me go first (or just really confused what I was trying to explain and too happy with all the piles of cigarettes and perfume bottles they had in their arms).

I raced to the gate and went obediently to the mandatory security check and to give my address in US, during which they reprinted the tickets for the remaining journey.
I browsed through the ticket and was sure that they had made a mistake. My seat had changed and boarding group zone too. I asked the lady kindly, whether she was sure that this was my ticket.
I mean name was right on the ticket...but nothing else matched to the ticket they had printed already in Helsinki. I was tired and confused...I was sure there was a huge mistake and then in the plane I would be bounced around, as they had given me accidentally someone's business class seat....until it stroke me that this must have been my fiance's way to say "I wish you a pleasant flight and I wish I was there with you"!! :o)
Could it be?! Would he have gone and done that...for me?! He is crazy!! ...and adorable at the same!

I was shocked, happy and not far from being high from the mind game or my fiance upgrading me to the business class. I walked tunnel that stated "Business Class" and I screamed on the way: Jipppiiiii!!!! (I did not care if someone was behind me and asked the stewards later to give me some mental medication)
I had 2 elder gentlemen sitting next to me. While I was settling in and packing my bags away I told them my conclusions to the business class upgrade and what a wonderful fiance I have. They were very happy for me. I sat down to read the inflight magazine and was hoping that my fiance would feel the warmth, somewhere over the Atlantic, from all the love I was trying to send him mentally.

The inflight magazine looked interesting, especially all the gadgets they had selected for the tax free shopping. I always take some home just to check the latest gadget trends...I love gadgets. I heard a familiar voice asking:" Miss, is this seat free?" I looked up to see if the ticket they gave me at the gate was really the ticket straight to 7th heaven and maybe I was there already... as it was my FIANCE! He was standing there, right there. I jumped up and just wanted to kiss him head to toe and hug him so hard.

As all the excitement calmed down, the elder gentleman sitting on my other side commented: This is definitely something to tell at home to my wife....well not everything though, as otherwise she will start having too high expectations. But this is like straight from a reality show with such a happy ending!"

I kept staring with an idiotic smile at my fiance the first hour. I could not believe that he was really there...with me, flying with me... making the entry to our new life in US together. While holding my eyes closed, I kept reaching my hand out to reach his hand...wanted to make sure that even though my eyes were closed...that he would stay there, right next to me...my angel.

And yes.....he had sooooo deserved his Mozart chocolate liquor :o)