Our trip to the Hospital

So we ran out of some of meds. Had multiple bottles of everything else we needed but not this. So we start off at the library and get a list of physicians, but it will take weeks to see them, and without the residence permit we're not in system. Then Walter points out the tourist office. Long story short; the lady there suggests going to the hospital emergency room. Emergency room! Now I'm feeling like the American uninsured clogging hospitals with ear infections and flu symptoms.

So the kids and I make the several kilometer trek (no bus...we splurged yesterday). We're walking along this lovely road when we come upon two middle-aged bicyclists who have stopped along the side of the road with their berry buckets. Thinking this would be a sweet diversion, I ask if we might join them and if we were on anyone's property. "In Norway, you can pick berries anywhere. Hike anywhere," the fellow told me, so, after I mentally noted my American fixation on private property rights, we plunged in. Suddenly the man started screaming and running back to the road, his wife after him. I followed--torn between expressions of concern and unpicked berries. While he frantically tried to rid himself of bees (Mark, told me they were probably mining bees), I suddenly felt a needle pierce the heel of my foot. "Boys, boys...come here" I cried, needing someone to lean on so I can examine my foot. Both of them, afraid of the bees, hung back about twenty yards, and I thought, hey, what about those ten years of maternal devotion. A few bees and you won't come to your mother's aid.

Needless to say, when I started out for the hospital I was nimble; I entered limping. But, then, ah, ah, oh hail to thee Norwegian health care system. I waited about an hour with about four other Norwegians in the waiting room. The physician saw both Mark and me, wrote three prescriptions (one now for my swelling foot) and we left with a bill of 229 NOK, which is 37 dollars.

p.s. On our way home, Walter spotted a toad in the middle of the road and the boys made sure he hopped to safety.