My Close Encounter with the EENT

This happened on the 24th of February, 2009 on a rainy afternoon.

The antecedents of the facts are as follows:

I needed the card reader for my cellphone memory card. I could remember that it was hidden somewhere in my old stuff at the other room. Since the room hadn’t been entered into for quite some time now, dust had accumulated. As a browsed through some of my old things, millions of dust swarmed my eye and I rubbed my eye to shoo it away but it was too late. They have entered and stuck to the outer thin covering of my eye. I continued browsing through my other stuff but to no avail. The card reader must have been moved, used lately or lost. I left the room frustrated, rubbing my eye.

When I returned to my room, I checked out my eye and wanted to see what happened to it. WTF, its all red! The rubbing resulted to an irritation and a red eye (not sore eye). My right eye had an inflammation on its inner left corner (it doesn’t hurt or anything like that) which cause the veins to inflame (which results to the redness of the eye-looking like a sore eye). That f*@#ing card reader!

I left it alone for two weeks. Everybody noticed it and kept asking what happened to it. Then my parents noticed it. My father wanted me to have it checked by a professional. He recommended I go to Dr. Aalapaap (not real, but with semblance). He wasn’t there, unfortunately. Out on the field the caretaker said. Will be back late this afternoon, she said. Try coming back tomorrow, she said. Do you have a telephone number or his cellphone number so I could contact him if he’s available or if he’s here in his clinic so that I wont waste any of my time or money, if in case, he isn’t around when I come here, I asked. No, I don’t know, she said. Sorry, she said. I left the clinic after thanking her and saying that ill try to be back later this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

I proceeded home but on the way, I saw a signage saying: EENT Specialist Dra. DVD (not real, but with semblance). Tel No. 2222-1234 (not real). I said to the driver to just let me out here. I thought, why not try this one so that my problems will be over. The doctor was not yet in, the guard said, they’ll be here by 2pm. Lucky there was a store nearby where I could waste my time, it was just 1:45pm. I came back at 2:05, the guard said, the secretary is in. I asked where’s the clinic, he said, 2nd floor.

When I got there, I greeted the secretary a good afternoon, then proceeded to sit on the sofa. I asked where the doctor is and she said, doing her rounds. I asked her how much is her professional fee for a mere check-up. She replied P350.00. I said, really? Its too expensive. She said, you can ask her for a lesser fee. Then, I smiled and thought, maybe I would. Besides my father only gave me P300.00 for this whole operation.

She got up and approached the TV, turned it on and a super loud audio shouted and almost made my ears run away. She turned it off, then on, the same thing happened. She did it again, and again until finally she decided to push the volume button and turned it down a notch, one or two decibels, maybe. JUST A NOTCH. The TV is still shouting. Then, she asked me if I already have a record with them, I told her no. Then, she took out an index card and returned to her seat then she said, what’s your name? I did not notice she was talking to me, I was fixated at the television, lucky John Lloyd was on it or else I would have raised hell, joke! I only noticed that she was actually talking to me because I turned to her, with a smile plastered on my face (because of John Lloyd) looking for the same reaction on her face (because of John Lloyd). She was looking at me and asked my name again. I said, “Oh!”. I told her my name. Age, she said. I told her my age. Married, she asked. I told her no. Where do you live, she asked. I told her where I lived. That was it. She returned to whatever she was doing and I returned to John Lloyd and kept smiling.

Then, an old lady came in, wet, her hair was all over the place and pointing her dripping umbrella to the secretary. She looked at me. She didn’t smile. She was rigid. Then I figured that she was the doctor when the secretary stood up and reached for the umbrella. The doctor then went to her seat and laid down her bag and took her cellphone and texted. She just kept on texting as I waited in the sofa looking at her. After about 2 minutes, she was done. She read the index card placed by her secretary on her table. That was my cue.

I sat at the chair beside her table and greeted her a good afternoon. She didn’t look at me nor replied to my greeting. I still had the smile on my face, partly because I was nice and it was polite to greet her with a smile and partly because of the thought of John Lloyd. Then she asked something like, what? I replied, I wanted to have my eyes checked doc. She said, what? I said, my eyes are red doc. She said, what? I said, here doc, my right eye. It’s red. I pointed to my right eye and showed her where the red part was. She stood up and told me to sit at the steel chair near the door where some of her apparatus are found. She placed a glasses-like thing in front of my eyes and asked me if I could read the poster on her wall, the one with the E Z F etc. She tried covering my left eye and asked me to try to read it again. I said I can read it. Then my right, I still could read the poster. Then, she handed me a small laminated note with its contents similar to the one posted on her wall. She did the same procedure, I could read what was in it. Then she told me to sit at another machine and examined my eye closer-sort of like a huge microscope. She held a flashlight-like thing in front of my eye, first the right. She said, “Ah, there’s an inflammation!” Then she did the same thing to my left eye. She stood up, turned the lights off and returned to her seat.

She scribbled something on my index card, she then reached to her drawer, got out a box and from the box, she got another small box and scribbled “one drop 3x a day” then she handed it over to me saying “6-10”. I took the box and checked it out. Then I asked what the intervals are for the medicine. She said, take it for 7 days and stop. I asked her what happened to my eye. She said, “it’s inflamed.” Huh? Don’t I know that already? That was the reason why I went to see a specialist, wasn’t it? I thought to myself.

“Eh, doc, what could have caused it,” I asked. She said, “I don’t know.” What?!? WTF! I thought to myself.
“Eh, doc, could it have been caused by dirt”, I asked. “There maybe many things that could have cause it, dirt, pollution, bacteria, etc.,” she replied.

I took that as my cue that the check-up was over so I asked her how much. She said, “6-10”. Then said it again, this time it was spelled out, “Six Hundred Ten Pesos”. Oh, so that’s what she meant when she said 6-10 the first time, I thought to myself. Hmmm. I kept wondering that there is something-something here but I just could not figure it out, there were no words that could come out of my mouth. So, I took out my money and handed her two crisp P500 bills. She asked her secretary to look for a change. With that she returned to her cellphone and kept texting.

I said to myself, O-K. Then I got up and sat at the sofa, still wondering to myself what had just happened. After receiving the change, I thanked her and left the clinic. She smiled this time. I was still holding the box of medicine in my hand, blank thoughts. What?!? I mean, WHAT?!? 6-10?!? I looked at the box then I looked at the rain. It was heavily pouring outside. Then I looked back at the bottle and then to her clinic. I thought to myself, what?!? I mean, WHAT?!? WTF just happened?!? 6-10.

When I got my sanity back, I saw a pharmacy. I showed the pharmacist the medicine and asked how much it cost. She said P181.75. I thanked her and said to myself, P181.75. Then I repeated it, P181.75. I must have said the price 5 times. Then I went to another pharmacy, just to be sure, she said P181.75. Huh! P181.75. Then, I began computing. I could not compute it, my thoughts are all over the place. P181.75.

As I continued walking home in the pouring rain, I saw another pharmacy and did the same thing to the other pharmacies and got the same reply. P181.75.

When I got home, I told my father about it. I said to him, Father, this is one of those people whom you are referring to as “The Worst Kind of People!” He asked me what happened and I narrated everything to him as a just did in here. He told me, that was why I told you to go to Dr. Aala. I did not what you to go to her. I thought to myself, WHAT?!? I mean, you could have told me earlier about it. He said, they are couple’s. I nearly killed her husband because of his bad attitude. Hmmmn. My gosh!!!

LESSONS:
1. When going to a medical practitioner, please do the following things:
a. Greet the doctor
b. Tell her your name
c. Ask for her price
d. Tell her your problems
e. Ask for solutions
f. Ask for prescribed medication
g. Ask for generics
h. Ask for a receipt
i. Ask what you are paying for
2. Ask for a receipt. I know that these establishments are mandated by law to automatically issue a receipt when charging their services for a fee but what can I say, there are people who are really….(im still searching for the right term. Ill get back on this)