I can understand it, especially after spending an hour in a standing-room-only waiting room. Most of the people seemed associated with the H1N1 outbreak, but a goodly number had parasitic sort of screaming or toxically-yellow-faced illnesses I'd rather not think about. Still, there's something disconcerting about meeting one on one with a doctor who's wearing an anti-viral surgical mask. Really? Am I that toxic? Or is your medicine just that weak?
He looked at my chart and turned to his computer. As I scratched my food, I saw him looking up "Malabsorption" on Wikipedia. Then he read up on "Protein Losing Enteropathy." Really?
After he read through the rest of my chart, he looked at me and said, "Nothing wrong with you. Everything works good. Go home, we have sick people.
Unfortunately, pushing past that becomes a matter of face: were I to point out my current weight and ask him to classify it as normal, as nothing wrong, I would be making him look bad. This we cannot do.
When I hinted about being too skinny, he said, "you in Thailand; is only little below normal for Thai."
I didn't blow a guffaw in his face, but it was tempting.
Once the flooding abates, off to greener medical grounds, I guess.
I've seen so many doctors that I've had plenty of unpleasant experiences with them, but I've never had one look up information on Wikipedia right in front of me. I hope you will see someone soon who won't dismiss your health issues as trivial so ridiculously quickly and that some relief and weight gain are in your future!
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