Doctor's Visit

Rushil has been down with the flu all week. Prasad took Rushil to see Dr Reena at the Vitalis clinic earlier in the week. (no, he didn't have H1N1) He had a fever again on Thursday night so this time I took Rushil to the clinic. First of all, I was in a hurry because the clinic was to close at 2pm and it was 1:45pm when I reached the clinic. In India, we need to manage our own medical records and carry them with us as clinics do not keep any records other than perhaps your name and number. This is something I'm still not used to. Fortunately, the clinic was empty so they took us in to see the doctor. Dr Reena is a 40 something, tall, slim, well dressed, (western clothing) extremely confident woman with a short, chic hairstyle. Within 2 minutes, she scolded me and told me she can't come to any conclusion unless I bring his records and asked me to go back home and get them. I was shocked at how rude and abrupt she was. She is the center's director and owner and the only pediatrician in the clinic. Normally, I would not put up with this behaviour and would have taken the kids elsewhere but I had to swallow my pride and go back home and get the records. My reasons: Her clinic is walking distance from our home, she has apparently worked under one of the best doctor's in town, she doesn't believe in administering antibiotics unnecessarily and she is not against alternative medicine. If I didn't shut my mouth like I did, we would be stuck driving a much longer distance and I would curse myself for it in the future. She had asked Prasad to keep a temperature chart which Prasad had diligently done so when I returned with the chart, she was happy to see that he had followed her instructions. She told me to just wait and watch and felt Rushil would be better over the weekend. The odd thing was that she didn't do an examination and just based her whole diagnosis on the chart. Her gut instinct was right so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now. What irks me is that she really thinks very highly of herself and has no problem showing it and repeating how experienced she is, I've encountered this multiple times with experienced female doctors in India, I wonder what the deal is. The interesting thing is that Prasad never once mentionned her cockiness and he's taken Rushil there at least twice before, maybe I'm less tolerant, but I bet it's because she is nicer to men :-) Ok I've gotten this off my chest now.