My grandma's doctor

September 4th 2007

My grandma’s doctor still doesn’t know my name, because the second I stepped into his main office, my 88-year-old grandma on my arm, he started yelling at me. I am not quite sure what his grievances were at that point. I did gather later on, as we were asking his assistant to fill out some prescriptions for my grandma with some additional documents for her Belgian health insurance (while waiting for the doctor to examine her), that we were taking too much of his assistant’s time. The fact that said assistant was in fact sitting at her desk doing nothing until we came in didn’t seem to factor in. He yelled: “I am paying her, you know?” I managed to refrain from saying I certainly hoped so and from asking whether he was paying her by the prescription or by the month.

The doctor kept marching in and out of his examination room, and at some point had me walk in with him. That’s when I discovered that there was in fact an unfortunate 90-year-old patient quietly sitting on a chair inside, waiting for him to be done yelling before he finished examining her. With her there, he yelled at me that he had had old people in his office all day long, bothering him about prescriptions, as if he had nothing better to do. He then showed me Greek insurance papers, saying that that’s what they used here, he didn’t know how we did things “over there in Europe”, at which point I felt obliged to point out to him that Greece was in fact in Europe and had been for quite some time now, even though that fact had apparently not quite sunk in yet. That probably didn’t endear me to him, I freely admit.

He then proceeded to yell that he wasn’t obliged to fill out any of my grandma’s foreign papers, and what was I going to do if he refused? At which point I replied that indeed he was obliged, as is stated in the international treaties between countries of the European Union, which he would have known had he bothered to read the paperwork my grandma had brought to him several months ago. As to what I would do if he refused, I mentioned that there was always the Higher Justice Courts of the European Union, but that surely neither one of us wanted to get involved in long proceedings, and since my 88-year-old grandmother was now in his office, wouldn’t he be kind enough to examine her? Those who know me well would have been impressed by my calm manner.

Well, he did examine both the 90-year-old and my grandma, he signed all her prescriptions, and what’s more, having forgotten to give them to us, he actually drove to my grandma’s house at 11 pm to hand them over to her. Again, Greece at work: first yell at them, then do them a good turn. That’s one of the reasons I love this country. (Not the yelling part, obviously.) When in Greece, I am always reminded of the French adage: they bark, yet do not bite.

SOME FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER:

Alexandre C:
Putain, je te vois sous un autre jour maintenant. En fait pour une greque t'es vachement calme et pausée...

Cory M:
I would not do well in this country.

Amy T:
Bizarre! I can't imagine any American doctor (EVER!!!) driving to someone'shouse to give them a prescription.

Gavin K:
I love your email journals -- Greece filtered through all that trademark Laura wit/humor... Keep them coming!
We miss you over here in the States...