Being sick is no fun, but it's even less fun when you've got an entire new medical system to navigate. And, of course, when you're sick your brain isn't necessarily up to processing all kinds of new information. In French.
I've been ill with some sort of throat virus for a couple of weeks, and have had to miss several days of work as a result. Here in France, you can't just call in sick. You physically have to go to the doctor's office and get a sick note, so the doctor can verify that you are sick, which you then turn in to your employer upon your return. You also pay the doctor for the visit that day, and they give you a receipt which you must fill out and send to the social service to get reimbursed. If you get a prescription, which I did, you also get a receipt for that which you have to send in as well. So the paperwork is quite extensive, even if you miss one day of work. Once we receive our carte vitale, the social system card, the paperwork should cut down a bit.
The nice thing is you can go to any doctor you want. But, when I fell ill, we didn't know any doctors here yet and wanted to find one that spoke at least some English. Luckily, one of my coworkers goes to an English-speaking doctor who is located in the apartment complex next door to ours. A 5-minute walk from here. Which is nice since I had to go over there in the midst of a high-fever.
The doctor is very friendly and speaks excellent English, but she speaks French to me, except when I obviously don't understand. It's good practice for me, but admittedly a bit difficult to comprehend everything when my head is stuffy and I'm feverish. I've had to go see her twice for this bug.
Almost everyone in my office came down with something after Xmas, and I thought I was lucky enough to have it miss me, but no. I'm just glad that my coworkers have been so helpful with giving me the information I need to follow the process.
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