Qatari Medical System

I have zero faith in the medical system here in Qatar. I've had an ongoing issue for the last couple of months that I had already been to the doctor once for but had to go back last week for some symptoms that were starting to come back. In all actuality, I think my bigger issue is with my insurance company.

I started with my new company in October and received my insurance card in mid-December. No big deal, I didn't have and medical problems the first couple of month so I was fine with that. So the last week of December I start having some problems and decide to get checked out. First off, it took the hospital two weeks to get the results of a urine and blood test. The two weeks between the visits were pretty excruciating at certain times of the day, but I dealt with them.

I go back to the doctor for the results and hopefully some relief two weeks later (roughly Jan 11) and find out at reception that my insurance card has expired... Awesome, I think. I had the card for two weeks and it expired, great planning insurance guys.

So I have to pay about $100 just to see the doc to get my results. I get the prescription and find out I have to pay $300 more for the meds. Again, awesome! At this point I don't really care because I really just want the medication so it doesn't feel like I'm peeing through a fireant hole (TMI probably). Stupid UTI.

So everything is great after a few days, but then symptoms start coming back about 10 days ago. I stop back by the doctor with my new insurance card in hand (which looks like it was run through a grinder before I got it so nothing on the card is legible) and get some stronger medication prescribed.

Guess what, the pharmacy was out of everything I was prescribed. So I go to about 11 different pharmacies over the next couple of days and not a single one accepts my trustworthy Saudi Arabian Insurance card.

Finally, about 5 days after the doctor visit I find a pharmacy that will accept the card. So the burka clad girl behind the counter fetches my pills for me and takes them to the pharmacist. I guess there is an issue with prescriptions being more than 3 days old and the insurance company paying for them, so the guy has to make a call to verify that the company will pay. After talking to about 4 different people and taking a 10 minute "inshallah" (God willing time) break I finally get fed up and tell him I'm just going to pay for the stupid pills. Insert confusion on his part.

Apparently it is unheard of for someone to want to pay for their own medication rather than wait a week while phone calls go back and forth to figure out if an insurance company can cover some pills that cost a whopping $11. Yes, $11. If I had known that the day they were prescribed, I would have taken the loss just to save myself the time and sanity of trying to track down somewhere to use my insurance.

I guess I just miss the relative simplicity of the military medical system, even though all they ever prescribed was Motrin.

Goodnight.

Sandstorms...not fun.

So I definitely thought it was a little cool to see my first sandstorm yesterday. When I woke up this morning I had no thoughts of "cool" when I looked out my window. I woke up coughing up sand. It burns. Not cool at all. I now hate sandstorms.

The only plus side of this morning was that I got to watch UNC annihilate Duke. Had to wake up at 4:30 to watch it live, but I'm not complaining since I actually got to watch this one. It was a really good game, even when UNC was down at halftime I was still pretty excited for the second half, which turned out very well. Hopefully they have the same result when they play again in a couple weeks.

I am going to a ball tonight with a few friends. It should be a pretty good time. My friend Gus explained this thing to me as prom 1984. Can't wait for some 80's music and horrible dancing by all attendees. Hopefully the open bar doesn't get us all kicked out.

My elevator hates me

I am probably frustrated at way more things than I really should be. I guess I will start things off with my stupid elevator.

I don't know what I did to piss off the elevator, but it really hates me. Almost every time I go to use it, it automatically jumps into action and starts going up or down literally half a second before I hit the button. The first few times I was ok with it because there are four elevators in my building so there was always another one a couple floors away that would show up in a matter of seconds.

Not the case anymore. Now, even if there is another elevator on, say the 7th floor (I live on the 6th), it stays put while the one on the 21st floor begins the slow process of descending 15 floors to pick me up. I thought I had figured out a way around waiting for the one coming from the top floor by queuing the up button as well, which oddly enough sends the elevator that was on the 7th floor down to pick me up.

Apparently that practice is unacceptable to the elevator gods. When the 7th floor elevator arrives, I enter and press the ground floor button so I can go on my merry way, but for some reason the computer system gets confused once the door closes and continues to open and close until I get out...only to find that the one coming from the 21st floor arrived during the 7th floor elevator debacle and has now decided that I will not be riding and has begun to return to the 21st floor.

Why don't I just give up on the elevators and take the stairs you may ask? Because the geniuses that run the apartment building decided to lock all of the stairwell entrances from the inside with padlocks... That detail helps me sleep at night because I know if there is a fire in my building, I will essentially burn to death because I can't take the stairs and the elevators don't like to pick me up.

I've been mulling that one over in my head for a few days now. I really don't mind waiting for the elevator for a few extra seconds, I just think its just a funny representation of things not working out as planned. I saw my first sandstorm today. I've lived in Qatar for about 4 months now and this was my first experience with one and to be honest it was not impressive. It basically looks like fog, just instead of moisture in the air the is sand. I'm pretty sure I inhaled about 4 pounds of sand today. Definitely not good for the lungs.

UNC/Duke coming up in about 8 hours! Go Heels!