Tag: hospital

Zooks Faces Allergic Problems in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

In July 2021, I had awful skin problems. It wasn’t about pimples but itchiness on my face (particularly the forehead and the T zone), the inside of the left elbow joint rather than the right one, and the neck. This itchiness had lasted for a couple of months.

Every year I have a pollen allergy with my nose, and usually it ends in June, but as written in another article, this year I had itchy eyes too, so I needed to buy an eye drop. If I used the eye drop, everything was alright.

However, the itchiness was getting gradually worse, and I sometimes saw rashes, so I thought I would need to see a doctor. I googled the allergology in Tallinn, and found that East Tallinn Central Hospital has one. I rang, and the receptionist said:

You need to talk to your family doctor first.

This is a typically troublesome way while living in the third country.

When I was in Japan, I went to a hospital which has both allergology and dermatology, so I didn’t have to think which department to choose. On the contrary, I had no idea what the cause was this time. That’s why I called the allergologist.

There is no other way but to talk to my family doctor.

I emailed him, and he asked me the details, so I explained to him the conditions and how long I had had it. Then he rang me in the afternoon of that day, and I could book an appointment next Wednesday.

Table of Contents
★2/July/2021
★10 Days Later…

★2/July/2021

On Monday of this week, my face was ridiculously itchy. Suddenly I remembered bringing the dermatological medical cream from Japan, so I put it on my face.

But still itchy!

I repeated scratching my face and putting the cream on it. Eventually I took one strong medical tablet for the pollen allergy, and the itchiness was gone.

Next day, 






My iconic double eyelids were gone. 




Besides, I felt the heat on my eyes.

I was wondering if I had an allergic conjunctivitis, but the following day it was gone.

Have you experienced that your symptoms were better when going to see a doctor?

I had it on Wednesday. The rashes were mostly gone, but when I explained to the doctor, she prescribed me two medicines: 10 tablets and two tubes of a medical cream. She said if it’s worrying about the face, I could buy some medical cream for the face without any prescription.

Although I had to go to two pharmacies, I could get all of them.

The medical cream for the face  doesn’t have any rules, but other prescribed medicines have.

Reference

The tablets are called Opexa. It’s required to take one 20 minutes before the meal (in my case dinner). There are 10 tablets.

The other one is a medical cream called Fucicort. It’s big enough and contains 15g, but the doctor prescribed 2 tubes. I don’t know why.

Reference

This cream has a few rules; it’s required to put on a very small amount, and  to wash it out before putting it on again.

Also the pharmacist told me:

You also need to avoid the sun.

It’s the middle of summer right now.






Very challenging mission.




Anyway I’ll have tried them for 10 days.

I will update this article with the results in 10 days. (If I remembered.) 

★10 Days Later…

It had been 10 days since I started taking medicine and putting a medical cream on. There was no itchiness for those 10 days.

Actually, I didn’t have to check the effect of the medication for 10 days, but I had 10 tablets, so I kept checking the skin condition. In fact, on putting on the medical cream, the dryness on my neck and spots on my arms were gone, and I got beautiful skin. My face still (as of 18 of July) has a spot like a mosquito bite, but there was little itchiness, and my eyes were not swollen anymore.

Probably due to the dryness, it was slightly still itchy, but it didn’t look awful. The itchiness on my neck and arm joints were completely gone. However, I’m still concerned about the itchiness, so I put the cream on.

Of course I hadn’t finished even one medical cream tube, but I positively think that I can use it maybe next year when the itchiness will appear again.

I’m not sure if I’m patient, but I don’t go to see a doctor on seeing some physical problems. Thus, I kind of think maybe I should have been earlier, but the skin became great, and there was no problem at any summer events, so it was all right. However, I have a conclusion.

Conclusion:






A family doctor works well enough.




In Japan I went to an allergologist and dermatologist, but in Estonia your family doctor can solve the problem.

Anyway, I got my beautiful skin back, so I’m happy.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Gets Mental. (7)

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

So what did I do after having unfunny ideas?

Cocolyne who is one of my Estonian friends accompanied with me, and we went to the regional hospital in Tallinn.

(Praise me ‘cause I at least took such an action.)

After taking some psychological examination, the doctor told me that.

While staying in the hospital, I always thought like this. (Though I already recovered myself quite well when starting thinking of such a thing.)

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Uses Sick Leave in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

This time the article is about sick leave.

Maybe for some people it’s unfamiliar with it (because in Japan it is for sure.)

No worries even if you are unfamiliar with it, I’ll explain it.

The sick leave is a long-term paid leave due to sickness. In Estonia, though it depends on the work environment or style, it is quite common to work at home when you caught a cold for instance. One of my (Estonian) colleagues who works at part time caught a cold the other day and worked at home. I think this is one of the good points to be an office worker.

In Japan, according to my friends, they need to use their annual leaves when they caught a cold, which never happens in Estonia (as far as I know). Then, what about the hospital stay in Estonia? The sick leave is used for it.

Like the annual leave in Estonia the sick leave also limits the number of days that you can get, which is approximately 6 months for office workers.* You need a proper document for the leave but also can get benefit from Haigekassa (the Estonian health insurance organisation) and your company.

(*Check this website for more details. I definitely ommited the information.)

Here are three items for my case with the sick leave.

1) The unissued sick leave document

On the 31st of December 2019, at the final talk with my doctor he promised to issue the sick leave document. In Japan the first three days of the new year (the first to third of January) are national holidays but in Estonia/Europe they start working from the second. My company started 2020 on the third. However, everything started from the sixth because our boss couldn’t come owing to the cold.

Though it had been a week since January started, netiher my boss or our accountant nor I couldn’t see anything on our State Portal. Then my boss and I called the hospital, who said there was some kind of problem on Haigekassa’s system or something. This is actually a negative point of Estonia.

Any procedures online will be delayed sicne everything is digitalised in Estonia.

Eventually it was already the third week of 2020 when my boss could contact my doctor’s secretary.





Jesus, it took a fortnight to get the sick leave document.




Next day, both my boss and I could check the sick leave document on our State Portal.

Soon after the sick leave document was issued, the system worked so quickly.

I got the benefit on the next day my sick leave document was issued.

In order to get this benefit, you need to register your bank account beforehand on State Portal. Be careful – you can register only one account (= one account per person).

The calculation system is written in the following section.

2) Calculation of the sick leave with two years

In my case although I was officially released from te hospital on the 31st of December 2019, the sick leave document had the date 2nd of Januaru 2020, which means that I had two years in the document (2019 and 2020).

Haigekassa provides you with 70% of the social tax from the previous calendar year according to the number of days that you were in the hospital. The picture below is my actual sick leave document.

The first row of the table shows the benefit for the period that I extended to stay in the hospital (13 days). I was curious because in 2018 I worked at part time and in the half of October and November in 2019 I worked at full time so the social tax that I paid might be different. However, since my sick leave documents had the same number for the social tax, I guess it doesn’t matter whether your sick leave ended in the new year or within the year. Only the starting date seems to be considered. In other words, if your sick leave documents started in 2019 and ended in 2020, because it started in 2019, your benefit is calculated based on the social tax in 2018.

Also as seen in the image above, the third row shows 11 days but you can count 19 days based on the period in the second column. This is because you cannot get the benefit for the first three days (in my case the second to the fourth of December) and your company should provide you with the benefit for five days (the first four to eight days, meaning the fifth to the ninth of December in my case). Thus Haigekassa will give you the benefit based on the period from the ninth to the end of your leave.

In 2018 I worked at part time as mentioned and since I expected that my benefit wouldn’t be that a lot,






Jasus Christ, such a small amount money!!!!





weren’t my words or I had no damage. It was just good to know how much I could get.

3) Expense of the hospital stay

Finally, how much did I pay for the hospital stay for one month?

It cost 0€.

Usually, it costs up to 2.50€ per day and up 25€ per stay but it was an emergency in my case so I didn’t even get any bills and pay at all.

Actually, I still wonder if I do evrything correctly… Even if I have to pay for it, it’s not too much like a hospital stay in Japan. There wouldn’t be any financial issue on my side. (The thing is that since it costs a lot to stay in the hospital in Japan, my mam was worried about my finance.) When I was told to stay in the hospital the psychiatrist said it would cost a bit but there’s nothing (yet). I also asked Haigekassa but they told me to ask the hospital that I was staying and they didn’t deduct the stay fee as giving the benefit. I’m just lucky that I don’t have to pay for it.

In Estonia the medical stuff is way cheaper than in Japan.

I’m pretty sure this is not the major or universal topic but at least you could get some ideas regarding the medical side in Estonia and the sick leave. As for the family doctor, I’ll write another article in the future.

Aitäh! 🙂