Tere!
In summer, 2021, suddenly my face began itching.
I thought “Perhaps pollen allergy”, and I used internal medicines and medical creams prescribed by a family doctor. In winter 2021, the symptom was still there.
This time I wondered “Maybe dryness?” (I know positive, right.)
The situation where the itchiness stopped with the medical cream but came back if I left had lasted for a while, and the summer came in 2022. I finally thought that this was unusual, and went to see a family doctor properly, but he also didn’t have any idea what the cause was. Anyway, I was prescribed antihistamine and nizoral cream. At the same time, he advised me to book an appointment with a dermatologist. This is because there was a long queue to see a dermatologist.
I thought “But the maximum should be three weeks or something”, and yet in Tallinn surprisingly there was no vacancy until December 2022 as of August. There were technically vacancies, but all of them were private, which cost around 100 EUR.
Then I thought:
It’s probably cheaper to go to some other city, even calculating the total cost.
Therefore, I booked an appointment with a dermatologist on the Estonian health portal.
Table of Contents
1. How to book an appointment and how to use Digilugu
2. Zooks went to Narva
3. Outcomes after one month
★Summary
1. How to book an appointment and how to use Digilugu
You can book an appointment with a dermatologist in Estonia on the Patient Portal called ”Digilugu”.
First of all, log in there.
Click “National eBooking system”.
Click “Find a time without referrals”.
You will search available dermatologists. You can select all the counties. Since the booking queue to see a dermatologist in Estonia is extremely long, set the wide range of dates. Keep in mind that you may have to wait four to five months in Tallinn.
If you untick “Patient” in “Service paid by”, only free appointments are shown.
Let’s search.
Once you select the date and time as well as a dermatologist that seems to match your wants, click “Book”.
Enter your phone number and email address, and click “Confirm”.
Wait a bit after clicking, you will receive an email from the clinic that you selected.
That’s it! It’s very straightforward, but it’s irritating that every time we need to book one there. In Japan, you just need to go to a dermatological clinic, book on site, and see a dermatologist on the same day. Why is there such a long queue in Estonia?
2. Zooks went to Narva
Then on the last Friday in August, 2022, I went to Narva by taking a Health Day off which is my company’s benefit, and which I can take up to 10 times per calendar year.
You can take either a train or a bus from Tallinn to Narva, but the train is more comfortable in my opinion. Yet, it took around three hours to go to Narva as it is located at the end of Estonia in East.
I took the earliest train to Narva, and arrived there at 10.30 am. Since I didn’t have enough time to have breakfast, and in the first place I didn’t have much food at thome, I walked for half an hour, and had lunch in one shopping centre in Narva. I also studied until 2 pm there. I think I stayed there for 2.5 hours.
Then I walked to the clinic. Although I was mentally ready, everything was in Russian. The receptionist spoke only Russian too.
Just in case, I had downloaded Russian in Google translate app.
When the appointment time came, and I saw the dermatologist, she looked as if she had asked me
“In which language should we communicate?”
Of course she did. 😅
It’s perhaps unusual that an Asian girl visits to see a dermatologist in Narva. 😂
I asked her if she could speak Estonian in Estonian, and she said no. Sink or swim, I asked if she could speak English, and she said “A little”.
Such a miracle!!
Some people say I speak fast in daily life, so I explained as slowly as possible, but she could understand well.
It was actually an interesting time as she mixed Estonian and English sometimes. 😂 For instance, whilst she wanted to say “once a day”, she indeed said ”once päevas”. Or when trying to say “twice”, she said ”two korda”. 😂 It was all good as long as we were able to communicate. 😂
She prescribed me internal medicines for 30 days that I have used before, and two new medical creams.
By the way, the cause is unknown even now. The medical creams are betamethasone and pimecrolimus, the latter of which is for atopy. For some reason, I had a horrible red rash on my arm joint. I’ve had this one since I was a child, but it was more frequently itchy since my face began itching, I felt.
Personally, I wondered if mental health affects the skin. I don’t know for sure though.
3. Outcomes after one month
The next day after using the medical cream, my skin already got better. On the second day, there was less dryness. I don’t remember precisely after the third day, and yet on the around third to fifth day, the skin trouble was almost gone.
Since then, although from time to time my skin has been dry, with the medical cream the skin condition gets better in two days or so. Recurrence isn’t that often either. (It recurred once or twice in one month.)
It was a good decision that I went to Narva for this.
★Summary
If the medical system were like the Japanese one, I could see a dermatologist on the same day when I would book an appointment. And even in the dermatological clinic that is popular in my hometown, I could see the dermatologist by booking in the morning. However, here is Estonia where you need to book an appointment before visiting a clinic. Plus, the queue for the dermatologist is super long. I still wonder why this happens.
I have no idea why my face began itching, but anyway I’m glad that it’s better now. At the end of September, my mental health got better too, so I still think maybe the mental health was more or less related? I’m not sure though. Also, I was lucky to have seen a dermatologist who could speak English in Narva. (I was ready to speak Estonian in Narva where lots of Russian speakers live. 😂)
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As written above, on this day I went to Narva by using my company’s benefit called Health Day with which I can still get paid taking a day off. Therefore I walked around Narva a bit too. Since I didn’t want to use public transport in Narva, I walked over 20,000 steps. 😂
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For those who need to see a dermatologist in Estonia, why don’t you consider some other cities? (And let’s enjoy the town like a tourist too! 😂)
Aitäh! 🙂
zooks.ee 