Doctor visit

My blogging has been sporadic again because of a lingering cold.  I go to the drugstore and buy cold medicine, I sleep all day, I laze around the house not doing a blessed thing.   I manage to complete my teaching and crosswalk duties but then it is drag around for the rest of the day. I even missed the kindergarten bazaar this weekend!  I still don't know who won the raffle quilt!  Tetsu cleans and does errands (he's not much of a cook) and asks me if I don't feel like doing some patchwork or some blogging.   I feel like I'm not earning my keep around here.

Finally on Friday I went to the doctor.  I have a cold.  I KNEW that!

I sometimes think I've lived too long in Japan, I've forgotten how things are done in the States.  Take this doctor's visit for example.  In Japan we don't have doctor's appointments.  I suppose we do if there is major surgery scheduled but otherwise it is just wait in line for your turn to see the doctor.  So I sat, and I sat and I sat.  I'll have you know it took two hours to have a doctor look in my throat and tell me I have a cold and write me a prescription.  I saw him a whole three minutes (if that!).  But when I think of all the patients sitting in his waiting room from morning to evening, then, yeah, three minutes is about all he can manage per patient.  (But I only paid $10 for the visit.)

So how is this done in the States?  There have been times when I have been California and my mother has needed immediate medical care; no time to make an appointment.  We are fairly regular visitors to the emergency room and the Urgent Care unit.  In most cases, because of my mother's age and her symptoms, she is swept into the examining room and nurses and a doctor will care for her within minutes.  I know there are some people out in the waiting room who have to sit for an hour or so as triaged patients are taken care of but everyone seems to realize that is the price they pay for not having an appointment.

In Japan we don't have appointments and we don't have a personal physician though I suppose if I go to the same doctor enough times he might begin to recognize me.  This week's doctor seemed to dredge up the recollection (after I reminded him) that I was allergic to some medication.  But if I get fed up with one doctor's system or his doctor/patient attitude then I'll move on to another doctor.  That's why my mother-in-law has run the gamut of doctors in the town and she doesn't have any more she can go to!  My mother in the States has a doctor who has treated her for 20 years or more, calls her by a nickname, sits on the counter as he explains things, he even knows MY name.  It is such a nice feeling to know he KNOWS how we feel about treatments or living wills etc.  I wonder how many patients the average American doctor sees in a day as compared to the average Japanese doctor.  I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese doctor works through 50 or 60, maybe more during the flu season.

But I do know that if I am feeling sick in Japan then if I can manage to sit in a waiting room for two hours a doctor will eventually see me, whereas I wonder if in the States by the time the appointment rolls around the person is all better.  And I also wonder why I have more faith in the Japanese doctor's medication than the drugstore stuff whereas if I were in the States I'd probably just buy Tylenol and not even consider bothering a doctor for something so minor.  This is why I think I've been in Japan too long.

So I'm dragging along but on the upswing.  I've almost finished my three packets of medication (not given in childproof bottles by the way) and I sure don't want to go back to the doctor's office for another two hour wait.