I am once again jumping ahead of our travels to bring you the very latest update on our quest to be vaccinated. As I mentioned previously, we had set up appointments for doctor visits as well as to receive our first jab of the Pfizer vaccine.
Let me just say right up front that the online appointment service doctolib.fr is amazing. We had learned about this site and poked around, but never really understood it. Nina Fussing, whom most of you know from her fabulous website Wheeling It, is familiar with it and she encouraged us to make vaccine appointments. “Do it,” she said. “You can easily cancel if things don’t work out.” So we did.
First we made our doctor appointment, choosing one within biking distance of the aire where we are staying. His profile indicated that he spoke English. Perfect. Next, we snagged two vaccine appointments for the following day in Neufchateau, the closest location we could find but nearly three hours from Sens. Then, we went online to MyChart and downloaded a summary of our U.S. medical records into a pdf file, which we then uploaded to doctolib. This turned out to be crucial.
The day came for our doctor appointments and off we went to try and get a prescription for the vaccine. We arrived at the office, which was located in a little shopping strip with apartments on top. The entire place looked like Life After People. I wish I had gotten a photo. Nonetheless, we found the door and went inside to find a large empty waiting room. There was no check-in, no receptionist, no nurse, no nothing.
A couple of others arrived and took a seat in the waiting room. We watched them like a hawk to see if they did anything that resembled a check-in, but they didn’t, so we felt like we were good. Right on time, the doctor opened the door to his office and called the next patient by name, and right on time, each one of them finished their appointment and left. Then it was my turn. It didn’t take long to figure out that the “Speaks English” on his profile actually meant “Knows how to use Google Translate”.
The doctor was the only one there. He proceeded to ask me some questions which I answered to the best of my ability. Usually, this meant me saying “it’s in my records on Doctolib, did you see my records?” He ignored me and moved on if we couldn’t come to any kind of understandable answer. Overall, he got most of what he needed.
Once all the initial information was given, he asked why I was there. I told him “prescriptions”. The first and most important, I explained, was the one for the vaccine. We have appointments tomorrow. He understood immediately. Secondly, I’d like to renew my blood pressure medication and finally, a sleeping pill would be nice. He nodded yes to all. Then he asked me, “what about pain relief?” To which I replied, “Whatchu got?” I guess he had read my records after all 😆
I already travel with some pretty hefty pain medicine due to that damned kidney stone I had way back when, during our travels through the Mojave desert. I am prepared if I ever have another one. I also have prescription-strength Ibuprofen which I am out of because we haven’t been home to refill. I wasn’t going to ask, but since he was offering, I was glad to resupply. He rattled off a few options and we settled on paracetamol with codeine. I am already very familiar with this stuff, as it used to be available over-the-counter when my family lived in Libya and the U.K. I think it became “by prescription only” sometime in the early 2000s, because Steven and I got some in Ireland in 1999. Anyhoo, it’s good stuff for pain relief.
After a short physical exam, at the end of the appointment, the doctor moved the credit card machine toward me and said, “Twenty-five euros, please.” He never even asked about insurance. And that was that. My 15 minute appointment had taken 40, mostly due to the language barrier. Steven went in next and since I had given the doctor most of our details, he was able to get in and out in the alloted time of 15 minutes, including payment. Steven was not offered pain medication, but he did get a six month prescription for his blood pressure meds. It was fantastic. No paperwork, no “new patient” history taking, no $300 “new patient” fees. What a racket the health insurance system is in the States!
The doctor gave each of us a formal “Eligible for Vaccination” form which we took with us the next day to our appointment at the hospital in Neufchateau. We arrived and found the parking lots packed, so we went across the street and parked at the Leclerc grocery store and walked over. There were signs everywhere pointing the way to get the vaccine. We just followed the folks in front of us.
Our first stop inside was at a desk in the lobby where a lady looked up our names, then handed us a piece of paper with our personal information handwritten on it. A few in front of us were given lengthy forms to fill out and we were dreading having to do that, because of course, it was in French. But since we had uploaded our medical records to Doctolib, our forms had already been filled out and we just moved on to the next stage! How cool is that? Our second stop was in “Admissions”. We sat at the desk while she took our information, copies of our passports, etc. This is where we felt things might go south for us, because we are not in the French health system, we don’t have a medical card, or a social security number. We are not residents here. Then – and this is always the hard part – we had to explain that we live in a camping car.
The lady was very nice and she was really only concerned with filling out the information required. Once she was able to get the computer to accept what she had entered, we were good to go. She handed us more papers that we were to carry with us to the next place, which was just around the corner. Here, a medical assistant took our papers and we were asked a few health questions and had our blood pressure taken. We were given back our papers and led down the hall to a waiting area. In just a few minutes, a doctor appeared and called both of us into her office. She took our papers, grabbed a new form and in very broken English, asked more questions. She wrote down a pain reliever on that back of one of our papers that we should take if we had any pain from the shot. She gave us the whole growing stack of paperwork and walked us to another area where we took a seat and waited for someone to come get us.
We didn’t wait long at any of these stops. The whole thing ran really smoothly. A nurse called my name. I handed her my stack of papers and sat in the chair. I don’t know what I was expecting, perhaps a giant syringe with goop that hurt when it went into my arm? Maybe, but that was not the case at all. It was a quick and painless jab and then it was done. I was sent back out into the waiting area without my papers to wait for ten minutes. On my way out, I took a photo of Steven just seconds before he got his jab.
He also joined me in the waiting area, and he was dripping blood. OMG, where is that coming from? Turns out that before he got the shot, he had taken off his jacket and as he turned around, his hand hit the needle the nurse was holding at the ready. Two jabs for the price of one! In any case, his hand was bleeding. The nurse brought him a bandaid and we sat there, kind of in shock that we had actually pulled this whole thing off and that everything had worked out according to plan.
Along the way, they never asked to see the Certificate of Eligibility that we had gotten from our doctor, so I never even took mine out of my backpack. Maybe it was in the system but who knows? Steven added his to the stack of papers he’d carried around with him and now it was gone, because the nurse kept it. He went and asked if he could have it back to keep and they assured him he would get his papers back. Then they sent him away. He was sure they didn’t understand him, so he asked again. And then again. Finally he gave up and resigned himself to the fact that it was lost forever. Then the nurse came out to move us to the second “recovery” area, and on the way she handed each of us our stack of papers. Steven quickly grabbed his certificate and tucked it in his backpack.
We waited another ten minutes and then had our blood pressure checked. Mine was low, something like 109/72, but she said it was fine. Steven’s was normal. She wrote on our papers and gave them back to us. By this time, I was very attached to my papers. I figured it would be good to have some kind of record of what had happened at this hospital.
Once we were good to go, we were escorted to our last stop, the appointment office, where we had to confirm that we had already made an appointment for our second jab. We had, for 3:00 p.m. on April 20th. Then she asked for our papers and we watched in horror as she tossed them into a box. “Wait, are you keeping them???”, I asked, incredulous! “Oui!”, she replied. And that was that. We later realized that the name of the painkiller recommended by the doctor was on the back of one of those papers, forever lost to us. We had plenty of other stuff we could use. Fortunately, we didn’t need anything.
We walked back to Bijou and drove to an aire that was in a little country village about four kilometers away. It was free and came with electricity and was located along a pretty flowing river. It was a great place to kick back and relax. The next day we made our way back to Sens where we are once again parked up in our favorite spot. Life is so good, and aside from a slightly tender arm, it’s even better with a vaccine!
UP NEXT: Back to travels…the Dordogne, I promise!
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Awesome account of your French vaccine adventure! We are soooo glad you were able to get them, Linda. 😊
Thanks! We are absolutely giddy! 🙂
So glad it all worked out for you! Immunity, one jab at a time….!
Nina
Thanks for your help and encouragement! I don’t think we would have gotten them done this soon if left to our own devices! Now if we can just get out of 89 before lockdown! 🙂
So glad you got your first jab. Everyone who can, should. Here in California I logged into my county’s vaccination web site, registered as a food/ag category worker and was notified when it was my turn to get a jab. With the notification came a link to reserve a time slot for the vaccination. I chose on and on the dat drove my car to drive through vaccination. Orderly, calm, quick and kind. Showed my I’d and got my shot through the window. Like you no pain whatsoever. I was automatically signed up for second jab at the same time and place 3 weeks later. That also went of without a hitch. I now have an e copy of my van status on my phone in the app of the company that provided the shot and a paper copy. So simple it was astounding. Not everyone in my areas experience but it was mine. My husband went to another max vax location run by the same company and had a very similar experience just sans car.
I tol’ you it would all work out 🙂 Still nerve wracking “hoping” you have all you need. They have a whole lot more steps “over there” but all seem to be things that insure you’re as safe as possible. The doctor’s visit was amazing – and of course so much cheaper to stay healthy. I think you two were the last ones we’ve been waiting to hear you’d gotten your vaccine so I’m feeling full of hope and anticipation at this news!! Hope your second one is easy peasy. Bill gets his second one on Thursday, and then on the day his two week waiting period ends we hit the road :-))))
OMG, I cannot wait for you to get back out on the road. And if I’m ready for you to travel, I can only imagine how you guys feel! Very excited and happy for you that you got vax’d!
So good to hear that you two was able to receive your first shot . I received my second shot one week ago and did not notice any side affects what so ever ( Pfizer ) Hopefully it will go as good for you two .
Hey, Vern! Same with my parents who both got Pfizer. They had no issues at all. My daughter got Moderna and she was sick for about a day and a half after her first shot. Who knows why some folks do well and others don’t. In any case, very happy to hear you’ve gotten yours!
Hello Steven & Linda
Great to hear you got your first jab!
It is no wonder France is so behind the UK re the jabs.
I live in a small village, Annalong, County Down Northern Ireland and the procedure to get the first
jab was:
Confirm name & address
Temperature taken
Jab given by nurse
Wait 10 minutes
Go home
All carried out in local Church Hall
Take care & hope the second jab goes ok!
Kind regards,
Robert
Hi Robert! France loves their paperwork and bureaucracy! Your experience was clearly more efficient! We are looking forward to getting our second jab, and hopefully we will eventually be able to continue our travels. Thanks so much for taking time to comment!
So glad to hear you have both been successfully vaccinated and have a date for
jab#2. Well done. I much admire your courage and your ability to navigate in a language you don’t speak. Here in Italy the mood is not good. We are back in the red zone, the vaccine roll-out is slow to non-existent, and we are still trying to get Joel’s papers approved. Quick question: as my blogsite is being worked on may I ask if you’ve received
the last 2 posts? the most recent was posted last Friday. No pressure to read them, just
want to know if they’re arriving. Stay well. More soon.
It is quite stunning that the EU has faltered so badly with the vax rollout, while the US and UK steamroll ahead. As bad as the bureaucracy is in France, I think there is a method to their madness. I’m not sure the same can be said for Italy. I can only imagine your frustration with trying to secure residency/citizenship.
Thank you for your kind words, Maggie. Steven has answered you privately regarding your blog posts.
Well, that’s good. The hard part is done. Show up in a few weeks for jab #2 and hopefully you’ll be protected from bad guys forever. Us, too.
It will be a relief to be fully vaccinated. Whether or not we get to travel is a whole other issue. We are once again in lockdown. This time for a month.
Yay!!! What a relief that must be! We’re still waiting for our vaccines…hopefully in the next couple of weeks we’ll have ours, too. So happy for you guys!
Until you get those vaccines, beware of the third wave. That variant strain is really wreaking havoc in France and it’s in the states now, too. We are in lockdown again as of this weekend, for a whole month. Oh well, what else are we gonna do except hang out on our spot and do laundry. 🙂
Whilst I am very happy for you personally, it does seem very bizarre to me that, as non-residents of France, you have been able to access the French healthcare system effectively to jump the vaccine queue when half of the almost 7 million over 75 year olds in France have not yet been offered the vaccine.
France has a large non-resident population, including thousands of Brits who moved here after Brexit who are waiting for residency. France views Covid as a public health issue rather than a French issue and this policy also protects the most vulnerable among us. I find the policy to be quite forward-thinking. Eligibility for the vaccine also includes those 50 and over with comorbidities, which is how Steve and I qualified.
Nice! You got jabbed! You write up made me chuckle a few times …. too funny.
Thank you, Rita! One more jab and we will be golden. 🙂
Hurray! We get #2… Friday! No one took our BP. Should I feel slighted? We were the only 2 people to wait the 15 minutes. Most jumped in their cars and drove off.
No BP? You didn’t have a stack of papers? Yes, you definitely got slighted! Still, so glad you will be fully vax’d, especially given how much contact you will have with the public while workcamping!