Doctor, doctor I am sick.

For quite sometime,I have been feeling this lower back pain and it has come to be bothersome now. It's excruciatingly painful especially when you are stationary. Working in a call center entails mostly sedentary jobs as we sit between 9 to 10 hours in front of the computer chewing up calls depending on days where I had to extend overtime. I woke up this morning hardly able to stand and I had to curl up in my cot so I'd feel a bit of a comfort. Not most clinics are affiliated with my HMO card and I had to rely on the memory of the time I accompanied my sister long time ago at a clinic. I was starting to picture out how to get there. Luckily, I found the clinic without getting lost.
 
The doctor's clinic is a bit small. I noticed that patients only take not more than five minutes of face time with the doctor. When it was my turn, as soon as my face loomed at the sight of the doctor when I opened the door, he immediately asked me "What's wrong?" in his accent.I was surprised. He didn't even allow me to hit the chair first before even asking me what is wrong with me. So, I sat without an invite, and told him I was suffering from lower back aches generating towards my abdomen and my shoulders. He had me turn back at him, was told to raise my arms and slightly touched the muscles in my nape and shoulders. He started writing on his RX paper and I added a few things I was still feeling. I explained that the pain was going all the way to my abdomen, and my shoulders. So then he told me to lie down and quickly pressed my abdomen area asking me where the pain was.It took me not more than five minutes of consultation without even telling why I was feeling that way, what was that pain called, or why, or at least things doctor's usually say when you are unwell. I completed my doctor's trip feeling disappointed that I felt I was not diagnosed well. There were packs of medicine given wrapped in a small ziploc along with the instructions written on a sticker taped on each of them.
 

 
I can't help but compare the kind of service Filipino doctors give back home whenever I had to.Back home was lot better. They have this pleasantries that will magically make you feel better and relieved that he is going to give you the right medicine., And trust that they know what they are doing.Since, I had to skip work today and seek medical attention, I have to get the medical certificate he issued, otherwise I could have confidently tell him that the MC is not essential.More than anything, I need to be healed.
 

~h