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"Are you here for the first time?" asked the nurse when I entered the nearest Medical Center.
"Yes. Why?"
"Before the doctor will see you I have to do some paper work," she explained. "You know, the name, age, address, occupation, history of illnesses - all of it I have to put on the card-index. What's wrong with you?" she wanted to know my reason of visiting a doctor after she had filled up the card.
"I am in a bad frame of mind. A headache and a pain in my bones."
"Please, be seated," she pointed to a chair. "The doctor will be with you in a moment."
After a really short moment a white coat armed with a few sophisticated tools started to examine my body - ears, eyes, throat, heart, legs...
"So far so good," he made a diagnosis. "You just have a touch of cold. These pills should cure the problem," he handed me a prescription and I left the Medical Center.
That visit to a doctor took place a long time ago in Poland. I didn't pay for it. The only money I spent was thirty percent of the regular price of the medicine that I had to buy at the drug store. Then, a year or so later I went to America and it just so happened that I had to see a doctor. According to an American way I called first to make an appointment.
"Have you been here before?" asked the receptionist when I showed up at the doctor's office.
"No." This time I didn't asked why she wanted to know that because I knew that she had to fill out the card-index but it appeared that I was wrong. Instead of asking some personal questions she handed me a clipboard with an official form attached to it.
"Please be seated," she pointed to a chair, "fill out the form and bring it back to me. The doctor will be with you in a moment."
Until now the visit to a doctor wasn't too much different from the one I had experienced before but after twenty minutes of admiring the waiting's room walls I got a little nervous.
"Please, come with me," a nurse interrupted my contemplation and she led me along the corridor to a small room at the and of it. "Take a seat. The doctor will be with you in a minute," she closed the door.
At first I didn't pay any attention to the room I was in but the the doctor will be with you in a minute appeared to be longer than sixty seconds so I looked around. The walls were painted white and there were two pictures on one of them. On the other wall there was a window overlooking the yard covered with some kind of green bush. In the corner between the ceiling and the wall I noticed a thin spider's web...
"Are you all right?" the nurse peeked through the door.
"Yes, I'm fine."
"The doctor is with another patient right now," she smiled with an excuse.
"I understand."
"But he'll be right with you," she disappeared behind the door.
It was very nice of the nurse that she tried to shorten my time of waiting for the doctor. But what I didn't understand was why I had to wait so long. The appointment was scheduled at a certain day and a certain hour a week ago. And I was ready. So why the doctor wanted me to inspect his room? He was supposed to be the one who does this kind of work.
"Good morning," a white coat interrupted my thoughts. "How are you?"
"Good morning. I'm fine. Thank you." I lied to him. I lied because I was at the doctor's office so it meant that I wasn't fine.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked looking at the clipboard where it was stated in black and white what was wrong with me.
"I seem to have a problem with my left foot," I helped him to to read.
"Let's see...," he took my left foot in his hands, "Well...," he scratched his forehead, "we have to take some X-rays," he decided. "The nurse will do it and I'll see you in a moment," he left the room.
The floor was covered with a blue carpet. I didn't like that color at all. It was too bright. But after all it wasn't my room. Whoever cleaned the window didn't do a good job. And the frame of it should be repainted. The pictures on the wall were very nice - a landscape of mountains and trees...
"Please, come with me," the nurse showed up at the door.
Four X-rays had to be taken - two of the front of my foot and one of each side of it.
"They will be ready in a moment," the nurse smiled to me. "You may go back now," she pointed to the room at the end of the corridor.
This glass cabinet doesn't fit very well into this room, it's too small. Well, but at least they have a place to keep their tools. I wonder how many patients come here every day: ten, twenty? The frames of the pictures could have been wider...
"I've got your X-rays," the doctor came in. "There is a small bone here that is causing the problem," he looked at the X-ray against the light. "I can remove it if you like."
"What do you mean if I like? Is it necessary?"
"Well, I can perform an operation and everything should be all right." He didn't sound convincing to me so I changed the subject of our conversation.
"How much will it cost me to have a surgery?"
"Let's see. The operation will cost about three thousand dollars, then rehabilitation - about two thousand, hospital, medicine... I think that you would have to spend about eight thousand."
"Wow, that's a lot of money!"
"It's up to you. For now I can give you some pills that will ease the pain."
"If I make a decision to have this operation, how much time will it take for me to be able to walk and work again?"
"About three months, I think."
"Thank you, doctor. I have to think it over."
Going back to the front desk I was thinking feverishly. I couldn't afford not to work for such a long time. Where could I find that kind of money? Could the problem be solved differently? Was the operation necessary? O my, o my, o my!
"Are you paying for the visit now or would you like us to send you a bill," asked the receptionist.
"I'm paying now."
"It will be two hundred for the first visit, one hundred and eighty for the X-rays so it makes three hundred and eighty all together."
"Ola la!" I exclaimed.
"The first visit cost so much," explained the receptionist, "but the next will cost you less," she consoled me seeing a painful grimace on my face. "Here's your prescription. Have a nice day!"
She didn't realize how much I needed her have a nice day. If I had known how much the doctor would spoil my day I wouldn't have gone to see him at all. But what could I do? The pain was the pain and I had to get rid of it somehow. The nearest drug store sold me the medicine for forty dollars so I spent four hundred and twenty dollars all together for just to know that if I like I can have a surgery.
It just so happened that two months later I saw my friend from Poland who came to US with a ballet group and who was a doctor orthopedist. One word led to another and I told him about my problem and about the visit to a local doctor.
"You don't need any operation," he said looking at my left foot. "All you need is a support."
"How much would it be?" I was wondering.
"About ten dollars, I think."
"Wow! You are saving my life!" I exclaimed.
"Make a foot-print and I'll send you a support when I get back to Poland."
Waiting for the promised support I used up all my pills and I went back to the I can make a surgery if you like doctor to get a new prescription.
"The doctor can't give you a new prescription without seeing you," the receptionist surprised me.
"Why not?" I couldn't understand. "I just wanted to get more pills."
"He has to see you," she insisted. "Maybe it is necessary to take another X-ray."
"How much is this visit going to cost me?"
"One hundred dollars plus X-rays and medicine..."
"Oh! Thank you very much, I don't want to see a doctor. I just need a new prescription. Have a nice day."
On my way home I stopped at the drug store.
"May I get anything that have a similar efficacy that this medicine?" I showed the pharmacist an empty container.
"Sure. You can use Advil."
"I'll try it. How much is it?"
"Five dollars."
As the one of the Polish saying goes- The further in, the deeper, I had been sinking in something that was hard to believe in - the sea of question marks. Why did I have to have a surgery if I didn't need one? Why did I have to spend eight thousand dollars if I could solve the problem with ten dollars? Why did I have to use a medicine for forty dollars if I could swallow pills for five bucks? Why did I have to pay for the first visit if I wasn't sure that I would come to see the same doctor again? Why? Why? Why?
When I was going to pay a doctor a visit in Poland I wasn't afraid of it. Well, maybe a little. But here, in America, I am scared to death. I am scared to death not because I have a health problem to solve but because the visit makes me sick even more.
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