My husband joined me for my first appointment with a new psychiatrist here in Czech Republic. The pdoc was extremely nice and knowledgeable and asked great questions that seemed to help him understand my flavor of bipolar disorder, quickly and well. His English is excellent since he worked for a while in the UK. He seemed to take great notes, too. I'm actually quite relieved! He told me to always contact him any time I need to. In fact, that is something that many of his patients praised in the excellent reviews we saw for him. I did tell him that I'm a little sad leaving my psychiatrist of 13 years. He fully understood and said how difficult it was when he moved from Ostrava to Brno, and had to start over, leaving his old patients. Hubby read how his old patients expressed grief at that fact. This characteristic reminds me of my beloved American psychiatrist. It would suck to have to go to an uncaring doctor who rushes patients out.

I talk to my American psychiatrist by video session this Thursday. I will tell him that I saw this new Czech psychiatrist. I'm not sure that this next appointment will be my last with him, or if one after will be. The new psychiatrist did not change any of my medications. He did give me a prescription for one that I was running low on. Since I do not quite yet have public insurance set up in my new country, I had to pay 100% for both the introduction session and the prescription refill for quetiapine ER (generic Seroquel XR). The full 100% fee for the 40 to 50 minutes with the psychiatrist was 1,500 czk (that's about $67 US). I'm not even sure how much the quetiapine was 100% because we bought some OTC Vitamin A and OTC B-Complex with it. The total pharmacy bill for the vitamins and quetiapine ER was about 550 czk ($24 US). I assume the quetiapine ER cost less than $20. Again 100% patient pay. Once I have public insurance, the prescription med copays will likely be 0 czk or almost 0. Apparently future appointments with the psychiatrist will be quicker medication checks. He charges 500 czk ($22 US) for them. Again, once I have insurance, they will be 0 czk ($0). If anyone in the US is jealous, it's time to write your congress people.