So within the past 2 years of living in Sweden I've taken several trips to the doctor with family members and came to a clear observation of how nerve wracking it is to hear your temporary doctor say "you don't need antibiotics yet, just take Alvedon" after an irritatingly long wait-time in a virus-filled room with a hand-full of other worn out patients.
The great side about visiting the doctor is the small 150 SEK (about $20) you have to pay, comparing to over a hundred dollars in the US.
Approximate wait-time starts from 2 to 3 hours, depending not on the number of patients, but the number of doctors available. Finally a random doctor comes out of the door and calls out your name from the heavy stack of papers he/she holds. All that doctor says is "hej" and leads you to his/her clinic, asks you bluntly why you are here without any warm introduction, smile, or sense of humor. You tell them how terribly sick you are with your frequent high fevers, constant coughing and soar throat, and the next thing you know he/she gets the stethoscope out and tells you to take deep breaths. You follow the doctor's orders and do what you are told, but when you breath in you immediately let out your painful cough and you try breathing in all over again. Doctor hands you a piece of paper and sends you straight to the "provrum" where you wait some more until a nurse comes and does the three ordinary annoying tests on her common-cold patients: a finger blood test, throat test, and measuring your body temperature.
While you wait and wonder where your nameless doctor disappeared off to, you cough cough cough and hope that the medicine they give you will cure you overnight and that this will be the very last time you ever went to the doctor. You sit and think that the humane nurse lady would have made a better doctor because at least she gave you some advice and communicated well with you.
The doctor comes back and tells you that you have been MOST-LIKELY exposed to a virus.
"Keep taking Alvedon for your fever."
"But I am already doing that! It ain't helpin'!"
"Well, keep taking it."
"OK."
Next, the doctor finally gives you an antibiotic to fight your infection, in this case, "lunginflammation". Good thing you were coughing like you were dying or else they would have NEVER given it to you!
Your oh-so-caring doctor puts your antibiotic prescription into the system and tells you to "cough under your arm" and lets you go after saying "Tack". So you sit there nodding your head and staring, expecting a bit more advice, "Like are you kidding me. I waited 3 hours for this. Damn if only I had the license to write up my own meds."
I'm assuming being a doctor is a choice that can only be made by oneself, not other family members encouraging (blackmailing) you to be one, which in other words means that you must love doing the job that you chose to do. So I'm hoping that the 8 different doctor's I have met so far don't define the rest of Sweden's doctors, because those 8 were pretty dull. They all lacked communication skills with their patients which is actually one of the main things that needs to be focused on in order to really know what is going on inside the patient's body.
Common antibiotics for cold:
doxycyclin, kåvepenin, mollipekt
These are only recommended medicine that might come of help. You still need to ask your doctor first!
The great side about visiting the doctor is the small 150 SEK (about $20) you have to pay, comparing to over a hundred dollars in the US.
Approximate wait-time starts from 2 to 3 hours, depending not on the number of patients, but the number of doctors available. Finally a random doctor comes out of the door and calls out your name from the heavy stack of papers he/she holds. All that doctor says is "hej" and leads you to his/her clinic, asks you bluntly why you are here without any warm introduction, smile, or sense of humor. You tell them how terribly sick you are with your frequent high fevers, constant coughing and soar throat, and the next thing you know he/she gets the stethoscope out and tells you to take deep breaths. You follow the doctor's orders and do what you are told, but when you breath in you immediately let out your painful cough and you try breathing in all over again. Doctor hands you a piece of paper and sends you straight to the "provrum" where you wait some more until a nurse comes and does the three ordinary annoying tests on her common-cold patients: a finger blood test, throat test, and measuring your body temperature.
While you wait and wonder where your nameless doctor disappeared off to, you cough cough cough and hope that the medicine they give you will cure you overnight and that this will be the very last time you ever went to the doctor. You sit and think that the humane nurse lady would have made a better doctor because at least she gave you some advice and communicated well with you.
The doctor comes back and tells you that you have been MOST-LIKELY exposed to a virus.
"Keep taking Alvedon for your fever."
"But I am already doing that! It ain't helpin'!"
"Well, keep taking it."
"OK."
Next, the doctor finally gives you an antibiotic to fight your infection, in this case, "lunginflammation". Good thing you were coughing like you were dying or else they would have NEVER given it to you!
Your oh-so-caring doctor puts your antibiotic prescription into the system and tells you to "cough under your arm" and lets you go after saying "Tack". So you sit there nodding your head and staring, expecting a bit more advice, "Like are you kidding me. I waited 3 hours for this. Damn if only I had the license to write up my own meds."
I'm assuming being a doctor is a choice that can only be made by oneself, not other family members encouraging (blackmailing) you to be one, which in other words means that you must love doing the job that you chose to do. So I'm hoping that the 8 different doctor's I have met so far don't define the rest of Sweden's doctors, because those 8 were pretty dull. They all lacked communication skills with their patients which is actually one of the main things that needs to be focused on in order to really know what is going on inside the patient's body.
Common antibiotics for cold:
doxycyclin, kåvepenin, mollipekt
These are only recommended medicine that might come of help. You still need to ask your doctor first!
Krya på dig !
ReplyDeleteYou have to smile more ;) .. I went to the doctor twice and they were both quite nice ...
plus they do not give so many antibiotics here in Sweden..they believe you should fight it out... I actually think there are probably not so many germs in Sweden EXCEPT the subway..... God I am sure its trawling with germs...
in any case hope you feel better soon !
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHmm, I should try smiling more then. Let's see if I have any luck with a nice doctor.
Yes, the subway is where all the germs live!