At the hospital
Trip Start
May 15, 2008
1
21
22
Trip End
Aug 17, 2008
This morning I went to the doctor's office! It was called a hospital, but really it was a clinic. But then again they had an X-ray machine, and I got a chest X-ray showing that I do not have tuberculosis. Score! I had been up all night coughing and just got frustrated-it's been a month, and I already saw the doctor once, for the housecall. The total bill at the hospital, inducing X-rays, as 300 rupees (less than $10). Amazing! How can that possibly work? The antibiotics and cough syrup came to about $2.
Then I stopped by Café Coffee Day and was shocked to realize my drink cost as much as my combined prescriptions.
By the time I got back, I had missed class. I sat in that waiting room a couple of hours, reading Ragtime in Simla, wondering what other diseases I was picking up by being there. I wondered if I'd be there in that dingy crowded waiting room, flies and fans buzzing, all day or not. The doctor himself was very kindly and seemed relieved when I told him I had had a sore throat before I left the US. "Do you know why this is a good thing?" "because it's not tuberculosis?" and he smiled yes. "but it is policy in this country to vive and Xray of the chest for a cough that persists past 3 weeks, I think this can apply to you, too."
Then I stopped by Café Coffee Day and was shocked to realize my drink cost as much as my combined prescriptions.
By the time I got back, I had missed class. I sat in that waiting room a couple of hours, reading Ragtime in Simla, wondering what other diseases I was picking up by being there. I wondered if I'd be there in that dingy crowded waiting room, flies and fans buzzing, all day or not. The doctor himself was very kindly and seemed relieved when I told him I had had a sore throat before I left the US. "Do you know why this is a good thing?" "because it's not tuberculosis?" and he smiled yes. "but it is policy in this country to vive and Xray of the chest for a cough that persists past 3 weeks, I think this can apply to you, too."


