Poison Ivy in Berlin in 2014

My itchy patches were climbing up my legs and arms in a scary fashion, and with a bright red color, on the Thursday in late June so I went back to the Pharmacy in downtown Berlin.

I was walking towards the huge modern central train station that morning to buy my overnight ticket to Paris for that coming weekend so I decided to stop in on the way. The plan was that I would take an all night train to Paris – where I would see one guest off from our investment flat (later to become AirBnB) on July 4th, and welcome another tenant on July 6th. I had hoped to tie in a work meeting and make a work trip out of my train trip, but as it happened this would not be so easy – that is another discussion of course for another time.

So on Thursday morning I walked across town to the train station because the weather was nice and I wanted the exercise, but what I hadn’t understood was that our local pharmacy (basically right across the street from our flat in Berlin) happened to be a particularly international one. So the one I stopped in at on my stroll – near the Neue Synagogue and the cafe where I liked to get a lovely cappuccino and a slice of banana bread – wasn’t so comfortable with poison ivy. They took one look at my legs and the medicine I was already using and panicked. I felt like a leper for a short while – holding up my finger that had fallen off.

They wouldn’t prescribe anything but instead sent me upstairs to the public clinic where a dermatologist works. Now please remember that though I had been in Berlin for nearly a week at this time my language skills were still not great so I was in no position to complain. I took the referral form and walked up the three flights of stairs (instead of taking an elevator) because I felt fine…but then I had to wait in line behind several people in a very full waiting room to talk to Mr. Information. He was kind enough to speak some English to me, and promised that I wouldn’t wait too long to see the dermatologist. He was, not surprisingly, very worried about how I would pay for the visit but when I heard it would only cost 40 euros I pulled out a 50 euro note and he made me an appointment for right away.

I had previously noticed how unbusy the streets of Berlin seemed, few cars, not many pedestrians and a really mellow feel …. well it became apparent that this was because the entire population of Berlin, were in this doctor’s office waiting in front of me that morning.

I went to the Dermatologist room and waited nearly an hour pretending that I could understand German – grinning at a baby, making room for a man in a wheelchair and skimming through magazines without saying a word to anyone. But when the nurse called me into the doctor’s office the jig was up. I recognized “blah blah, german word, German, something Fulton” as she spoke directly to me (and I could see that I had been there longer than anybody else). But I then had to confess ‘ich sprechen nicht Deutsch’. She smiled politely and left.

The doctor of course spoke perfect English. Wouldn’t any American doctor speak perfect German after all???? Hahaha. He even knew what poison ivy was and prescribed me a new topical cream and night time pill “a stronger antihistamine” and sent me on my way in about 4 minutes. We had time to joke about how it should be called “Pocahontas’ Revenge” while Dr. wrote a prescription and then I snuck back through the waiting room to the information man who quietly took my money and gave me a receipt.

I went back down the stairs to the pharmacy and didn’t have to wait at all to give my prescription to the lady behind the counter. She nodded seriously and got the two containers that my magic piece of paper listed. The cream cost 50 euros and the pills cost 40 euros. Bummer! I said something about no longer needing my weaker pills and she nodded knowingly and took the box back (That I had only taken three pills out of) but didn’t offer any money back. Oh well.

It occured to me that it would have been easier to deal with this exotic, tropical disorder before I left the States but I really thought I had gotten away scot free at that time. The Poison Ivy encounter (from cleaning my back garden) -took nearly two weeks to flare up. But when it did it was bad.

The Very Good News was that these European medicines did seem to be working well. I had gotten another patch of Poison Ivy on my chest but it was not at all itchy and I was losing the itch on all the others except one tiny patch at my wrist …. I had many more pills and an unknown amount of cream left so I was happy.

I hoped that the US health insurance would cover my costs once I send them in my receipts, but I don’t think this process ever even happened.

Our daughter then arrived that evening and we had a lovely visit.

Sadly, the morning she was supposed to leave – she woke up with a terrible neck spasm and a stiff neck and couldn’t even move for a couple of hours. I went back to our local (international) pharmacy as soon as it opened and got her pain killers, magnesium (as a muscle relaxant – “duh everybody knows that right??”) and some hot cream (Voltaren/Bengay?). This latter seemed to cause a rash on both me and Sadie both – so its use was abandoned. Though she liked the warming effect of the ointment – the color of our rashes scared us. 

I got a real taste of German pharmaceutical health care….And both my daughter and myself recovered completely. I haven’t really dealt with Germany since that time – but I can rest assured that I don’t need to be afraid of their medical care. I now even have my European Health Insurance card so I can travel peacefully.