Jun
28, 2018-It was already seven o’clock in the evening. There was a long
queue of patients waiting for their turn to see the doctor. The clinic
was on the second floor of an old, traditional Newar building made of
brick and clay mortar with wooden windows and doors. The clinic
overlooked the busy town square. The doctor was in his room seeing his
patients one at a time. The doctor’s helper would call out the name of
the waiting patients every 10 to 15 minutes.
I had been a jaundice patient for two weeks. I had lost hope after being treated by a vaidya. I swallowed his pills and powder three times a day and frequently ran to the washroom for two weeks without any relief. Thus, losing hope with the Ayurvedic medication, I had chosen to see this doctor. Since this was the first time that I had caught jaundice and had such a strict dietary restriction, I was desperate. Finally, after an hour, my turn came and I entered the doctor’s room. He was sitting in his arm chair with all his medical equipment on the table. The doctor examined all my past reports and told me to lie flat on a table adjacent to his table and pressed my stomach and ribcage gently with his fingers. After examining me, he sat down at his table to write out a prescription.
My father and I came out of the doctor’s clinic after he had finished checking me. We came down the wooden staircase to the medical shop on the ground floor. My father took the prescription from me and handed it to a man in the shop. The man prepared a bill and gave it to us along with the medicines. As we were ready to depart, I realised that I had forgotten to ask the doctor what I could and could not eat while on medication. I immediately rushed back to the doctor’s room which was already engulfed in dead silence as the queue of patients outside had gone.
As I entered the room, the doctor was startled. I felt the pungent smell of cigarette smoke in the room. For a while, I forgot why I had entered the room as the doctor looked so shocked. “Sorry for the interruption, Doctor Sahib,” I said to him as politely as I could, “but I forgot to ask you what things I am supposed to avoid during treatment.” The doctor twitched his face a bit uneasily and opened his mouth, “You must avoid oil, spicy food, alcoholic drinks, tobacco and cigarettes.” Fluffy white puffs of smoke escaped from his mouth as he spoke. I felt choked. The eyes became pungent. I rushed back to my father and never went back to the doctor’s clinic again.
Published: 28-06-2018 07:28
I had been a jaundice patient for two weeks. I had lost hope after being treated by a vaidya. I swallowed his pills and powder three times a day and frequently ran to the washroom for two weeks without any relief. Thus, losing hope with the Ayurvedic medication, I had chosen to see this doctor. Since this was the first time that I had caught jaundice and had such a strict dietary restriction, I was desperate. Finally, after an hour, my turn came and I entered the doctor’s room. He was sitting in his arm chair with all his medical equipment on the table. The doctor examined all my past reports and told me to lie flat on a table adjacent to his table and pressed my stomach and ribcage gently with his fingers. After examining me, he sat down at his table to write out a prescription.
My father and I came out of the doctor’s clinic after he had finished checking me. We came down the wooden staircase to the medical shop on the ground floor. My father took the prescription from me and handed it to a man in the shop. The man prepared a bill and gave it to us along with the medicines. As we were ready to depart, I realised that I had forgotten to ask the doctor what I could and could not eat while on medication. I immediately rushed back to the doctor’s room which was already engulfed in dead silence as the queue of patients outside had gone.
As I entered the room, the doctor was startled. I felt the pungent smell of cigarette smoke in the room. For a while, I forgot why I had entered the room as the doctor looked so shocked. “Sorry for the interruption, Doctor Sahib,” I said to him as politely as I could, “but I forgot to ask you what things I am supposed to avoid during treatment.” The doctor twitched his face a bit uneasily and opened his mouth, “You must avoid oil, spicy food, alcoholic drinks, tobacco and cigarettes.” Fluffy white puffs of smoke escaped from his mouth as he spoke. I felt choked. The eyes became pungent. I rushed back to my father and never went back to the doctor’s clinic again.
Published: 28-06-2018 07:28
