Doctor, Doctor

A few months ago, when I returned from Christmas break, I was having a hard time with the time difference and feeling sick. I decided to venture going to a French doctor.

I took the day off from work, and called my family friend, Monique, to get a referral. She told me to call in and schedule an appointment, but when I did they said they couldn't understand me and hung up! I proceeded to call Monique back and ask what to do. She then told me to go to the Doctor's office and wait till he came back from the hospital and while I was waiting to continue to call his office.

Well, I crawled on down to the metro feeling like crap and rode the thirty minuets there while trying to avoid mid-day creepers....and couldn't find the doctor's office. He ended up finally returning my message and scheduling me for 6:30 that night.

My room mate and I ended up going back together in a taxi, which it took him forever to find the place too! Once there we waited for an hour till he called me back.

Doctor's offices here are nothing like in the states. The waiting rooms are more like a formal living room, and then you are called back into an actual office that has a table, sink and cabinets of medical nic-nacs in a corner.

The doctor didn't speak much English, so I tried my best to explain my soar throat and cough to him in French. He checked it all out and the proceeded to ask me if I had acid indigestion...I said no, but I do have a soar throat. He said, "alright, I'm going to proscribe you some medicine I think will help and you can pick it up at any pharmacy."

I still didn't have my insurance information at the time (nor do I now) so I had to pay on my own...it was a whooping twenty euro, which I could get refunded if I feel the need.
He had explained the meds to me but only understood one of them clearly, but when I got to the pharmacy they described it in more detail. He has prescribed me over the counter Advil and some digestive aids. How this was going to help my soar throat, besides the pain reliever, was beyond me.

Oh and both medications cost six euro all together.

I took the medicines are prescribed and felt better, so maybe he caught onto something I didn't, but I still don't have acid indigestion nor have I ever...