Yesterday I decided to head to the doctor. My calf was incredibly sore, and getting more painful every day. I asked my labmates a lot of questions about how this whole doctor thing was supposed to go. Luckily, in my packet of papers from the administrator at ITIA, one was the proof of payment of insurance, stapled to my primary care physician registration along with his open office hours. So I headed over there.
The office was just in an apartment building. This seems to be pretty common in Milan. Once I got to the office, I took a number and sat in the un-air-conditioned waiting room. The whole thing felt rather retro. The office was just the one doctor, one aide filling out prescriptions for the regulars, and his daughter as the admin. But, the operation ran rather smoothly. Considering that I took number 7 arriving 10 minutes after the beginning of office hours, he saw me in just a little over an hour. So 10 minutes per appointment, not bad. The doctor didn't speak much English, so I explained my problem in a combination of Italian and charades. He gave me prescriptions and we chatted about his upcoming family trip to the US for the summer holidays. (Let me just say that I am glad that I needed to see him now, rather than during his vacation, when I would have had to schlep over to his substitute's office...)
Overall, I would say that it was an pretty good experience. The doctor was super friendly and assured all my concerns about possible causes of the soreness. (I had been a little worried about DVT, since I first noticed it when getting off the plane on Sunday, but he assured me that I was missing the sure signs. Just a pulled muscle from swing around my luggage on said trip.) The uncertainty of just sitting in a waiting room hoping I hadn't screwed anything up (my leg, my paperwork, getting the right number) for an hour was the only thing that was unpleasant.
There was a pharmacy on my way to the subway from the office. You can always spot them from the big green cross signs:
I was actually amazed by how fast the pharmacy filled my prescriptions. You don't hand in your prescription then sit down, you hand them your prescription at the register and they get your stuff right then and there. Super fast!
Since the pharmacy was right next to a small Carrefour, I decided to bring home some groceries and grab a cold drink.
Fennel, potatoes, green beans, jam cookies, breakfast rolls, and porcini ravioli... I also had a Fanta Aranciata that I drank on the way home! The guy at the checkout was really nice, I was short 5 cents on exact change and about to pull out a 5 Euro note to cover that but he just gave me the "no biggie" wave with a smile. Had fennel in my salad last night!
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