Are our doctors better?

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Back in our country we immediately got the state health insurance for our babies and went to the pediatrician. Is our health care system better than the one in Georgia? Let’s check!

Form 100

One annoying thing happened already in the beginning when we gave the form 100 (the release form from the hospital) to the nurse. To scan it she opened the binding of the notary which we had paid a lot for.

But anyways, we did not really need this notary for the exit process, we just made it just in case. (We know that for some countries it is required.)

Metabolic Screening (Heel Prick Test)

We already did the metabolic screening in Tbilisi and paid a lot for it. So we were disappointed to learn that they had to do it again because in our country they are testing for more diseases.

This is what we ordered and paid for (it was the premium program):

what we ordered
what was tested
results we received

The doctor in our country suggested that we do it again because they will test for many more disesases. And it will be covered by the state insurance. So basically we did it in vain in Georgia and the babies had to endure the pain twice.

Vitamin K prophylaxis

This was done in the clinic in Tbilisi after birth but still we had to do it a second time. It is to prevent internal bleeding.

Vaccinations

In Tbilisi we did

  • BCG (tuberculosis) and
  • Hepatitis B

Tuberculosis is not done anymore in our country so it was not required to continue with it.

Hepatitis B is only given in my country if the mother had Hepatitis during the pregnancy. There were no records of her of having it and also I think it is just standard schedule in Georgia to do it. But still we received a second dosis because this it was not 100% clear and it was difficult to ask her.

Then the babies also received rotavirus immunization orally.

All vaccinations where free of charge!

Hip Ultrasound

This is a very important milestone test and it was also done during our visit! (I think we stayed there for at least 1 hour.) This is important to prevent later problems, for example that the joint goes out of its socket. Everything was ok luckily.

Note that we also asked if there is a problem with the back like scoliosis but the doctor said it is very rare with babies and he would have seen it immediately. I was afraid that they could have it because the twins were together in the womb and we heard it from other parents.

Weight, height and head circumference

This was also checked and everything was normal.

Note that we had changed to Hip Combiotic 1 because the doctor in Georgia recommended it but in our country they said we should go back to Hip Bio Pre because it contains important nutrients and they usually give it until 1 year. Pre combiotic is only necessary when the babys have flatulence or constipation.

Our babies had some problems with Hipp Combiotic 1 and also they were already getting a little bit chubby. Well we were still happy because in the beginning they did not gain much weight, esp. one child:

Ears, Heart and Navel

Doctor said navel was finished, it had just a little colorizaton I think because we might have used too much Betadine. Ears, heart and nose were all ok.

Tongue Tie

One baby had a tongue tie and the doctor decided to cut it with a scissor so it can eat better. It was not very painful (the heel prick test was much more painful) and the baby just lost some drops of blood.

Medication and creams

We still had some creams and also Vitamin D left over from Georgia. But the doctor gave us a list of recommended medications and creams that are available in our country.

Oleovit is usually given as a Vitamin D3 supplement. Since we had problems giving the Vitamin to the baby the doctor recommended to us to give 2 drops on a spoon and give it to the baby that way. (In Georgia we had kind of a dispenser and we always had to aim for the mouth and it was very hard to see the drop.)

These are the creams the doctor recommended:

It is basically one cream for the bum and a special one against rash with zinc. (In Georgia we had Topicrem for moisture and Rash Cream.)

Baby acne

This is not a problem the doctor said. We shouldn’t use any creams.

Conclusion

We will have our next appointment with the doctor in 6 weeks. As you can imagine we were very pleased for all the things that he has done for us in just one session. Also everything was basically “free” because of our countries insurance plan. We almost could not believe it after how much we paid in Tbilisi Georgia and many things were not necessary, but how could we have known…

What tests are you doing or have you done that you think are better made later in your country?

Post in the comments!

Comments

5 responses to “Are our doctors better?”

  1. Malina Avatar
    Malina

    Could you please provide a list of diseases included in the PKU test? That would be very appreciated. Thanks.

    1. Papa Avatar

      Hello Malina, I posted the table of disorders that we ordered and the result we received (please look in the chapter about Metabolic Screening). Does this answer your question? And please can you help me? For me it is difficult to understand if the results I received include all the Basic and Premium Tests?

      1. Malina Avatar
        Malina

        This is super helpful, thank you. Unfortunately I cannot answer your question but I would assume that even though they tested all of that it could be the case that they did not bother to translate and present more than the most common and/or important once.

        I also want to add something. It is not waste or money that you did the tests in Georgia even though you got it for free back home. Some of the most important things PKU test for is diseases that can cause severe brain damage to the baby if not recognised during the first days and treated. Hence we will for sure do the tests offered in Georgia, and then when we get home do what is offered within our home country to make sure we get it all. But no waste of money to do it in Georgia too – it’s very important!

        1. Papa Avatar

          Hello Malina, thank you for your answer… actually I wrote to the Georgian company that organizes the test and they wrote me judging from my results only the basic tests were done which was very disappointing for me because we were said it is the premium test.

          But anyways, maybe you are right and it was not done in vain but still we only received the test results when we were already home… but in general maybe we would still have done anything possible in Georgia just to be sure that when we need it that we had it (including notarizations, apostilles, etc.)

  2. […] on par with the health care system in our country – but of course this is to be expected. I wrote a post about it. Basically what this means if a doctor from Georgia wants to work in our country the education is […]

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