The yogurt

I don’t know if it was a cow, goat, or sheep milk yogurt… I could not even understand if it was strained, full-fat, or nonfat. The only thing I knew for sure was that it was coming toward me, and it was the first time in my life that I was so upset at the view of yogurt! No, it was not thrown to me, but someone was just eating it…

. . .

I had had a few times before sinusitis, but that last time was like taking revenge on behalf of all the previous that were mild and healed with a simple antibiotic at the speed of light. I had never been at odds with sinusitis. I could not even harm an ant. Would I ever start a conflict with sinusitis? Anyway, that time, I took antibiotics for a week, then different ones for another week, even stronger for the following weeks, almost a thousand prescriptions… even an intravenous, but in vain. It had put down roots and was not moving from my sinuses an inch.

. . .

The yogurt was getting closer, and I was getting more upset because he looked like he enjoyed it. Okay, he was a good man and equally good at his job (as I had been told), but I’d been waiting for him for so many hours to fix my sinuses once and forever. I did not expect him, though, to show up that way, walking toward me smiling and enjoying a yogurt as nothing was wrong. You’ll tell me now that I was just laying on a bed, I was not plowing all day long in California fields. Yes, but… I was starving, I had not eaten anything since the previous evening, and he showed up after so many hours in his white coat and not the expected green one. I remember that full well. “Operating Rooms” read the sign on the door we stepped through with the nurse. Precisely, not stepped through. He was wheeling the gurney that carried me, and I was invisibly crossing myself a thousand times as it was my first “visit” to that unknown world.

. . .

I always want to look for an exceptional, knowledgeable, and experienced doctor when a health issue arises, and I assume I am not the exception. Who doesn’t want the best when it comes to health, much more when you can’t find a remedy for a health issue it ails you. The first doctor was an acquaintance’s relative. “Great!” I thought… he will pay more attention. It was a private clinic, and he was a known doctor. I had gone through a lot the last months due to that insanely persistent sinusitis, and I desperately wanted a solution. The degree of attention he paid? It is left to your judgment. I did an MRI and was waiting for the results. I must have been in the waiting room for a few hours, alone and anxious to hear the doctor’s opinion on my problem.

Suddenly, he rushed into the room (as though he was following a well-organized plan to scare me) and started talking to me in a quick and firm manner. “You have nasal polyps; you must undergo surgery!!! It must be done as soon as possible; we have no time!!!” Needless to say, I lost the ground under my feet. What an excellent, personalized, and notable patient treatment… Well done, my doctor! It’s like he told me I had the most aggressive cancer and my trip to the skies was a matter of time. Oh my! What are they taught at colleges and medical schools? Are they ever taught the proper way to approach a patient, the humanly one? But… what am I thinking, the fool? It’s a private clinic in Greece. Not a public hospital where you pay nothing. In such places, those things happen (fortunately not often.) “Hold on, hold on, doctor… cool down, simmer down a bit,” I wanted to say, but I pulled a note of politeness from deep inside). “Can we go to your office to break it down for me, because I have some “unknown words”?

. . .

Waiting in the hospital’s operating room wing, I thought I was dreaming. I couldn’t imagine what more I could see when given anesthesia. I was at a corner, lying on the gurney and waiting to be taken for the procedure. I could see many doors in a row where surgeons and their assistants were operating on patients, but one of those doors caught my attention more. I could barely see a guy’s legs resting on a chair (who probably was slumped on another chair) and lots of smoke coming out of the room. I must be dreaming, I thought… Is it possible for someone to smoke in a hospital, especially in there??? It must have been the doctors’ office within that section (I heard people talking). Was it because it was a public hospital (where rules and regulations may not be followed strictly compared to private healthcare institutions?) No, what a foolish thinking! Could that justify smoking, and while many of the operating room doors were open??? Those thoughts were short-lived as a loud voice coming from a room close to me landed me in reality. “She’s not waking up; she’s not waking up…!!!” Oh my! Poor old lady… the anesthesia was taking too long to give way to life again. In another room, I could hear the doctors’ conversation in detail while operating on another patient. Oh God, what a wonderful experience! My first time in the operating section of a hospital… Why should I go through all this?

. . .

“You must not go back to the island; you should not waste more time. You must undergo surgery! Today!! “Hey, hey, hold your horses, doctor, come on. Do you know whether or not I can afford it?? Have we known each other, and I forgot?” I imagined saying. “Doctor, please explain to me the whole procedure and tell me how much it costs…” “It doesn’t cost a lot, it’s… and he utters an amount I would not give, much more that day. “Let me think about it, and I will get back to you in 1-2 days…”

. . .

“You have absolutely nothing!” “But doctor, I feel that… and the last X-rays showed the one sinus is still full. “It is fine; there must be something else.” You don’t have sinusitis.”

I was puzzled, in thoughts, and with my pocket emptier. You see, he was a professor and a big name. He was the first I saw in Athens. “Will he not use any machine or tool to check my sinuses in detail?” I thought. Nothing. In 15 minutes (it did not take longer), he pressed a bit on my cheeks, asked a few things, and I put down a hefty pay. A professor, you see…everything has its price.

How could it be? Why was there that vast difference?? Day and night… “You have nothing,” the one, “it’s serious, and you must undergo surgery today, the other. Let alone that the latter was quite bored to speak, and everything he said was after my persistent reasonable questions. Both doctors were big names. Some out there say you should never see too many doctors for an issue because you get confused… Thank God, the third one was a good human (was he?) and an excellent professional. “Don’t worry; it’s a common case of sinuses infection that needs a routine procedure. You will stay in the hospital one day, and then, hopefully, you will go back to work.” It was one of the big public hospitals in the capital. What a big thing to find doctors who do their job as they are supposed to do, and be humans above all! I liked him so much… until I saw him coming and eating a… yogurt!

. . .

“We didn’t have time today,” he says… “I had to operate on another patient first, but early in the morning, I will start with you,” he continues. He walks out, finishing his yogurt and leaving me alone on the same gurney and corner. There is nothing bad in seeing someone enjoying a yogurt, much more after many tiring operating hours. But, how would you feel? You wait for hours (and you have not eaten anything since the previous evening; let’s not forget that). You finally know it’s your turn as you see your doctor coming, but he instead walks past you eating yogurt and saying he had other patients to operate on… I understand; there are more serious cases than mine. Who am I to demand an operation on time? Let’s be humans first. My stomach was simply protesting. Come on, guys, not even a cookie? Nothing to be offered while waiting? What about a hot chocolate, an espresso shot with a warm butter croissant, maybe? And it was not the end of it…

. . .

“He didn’t ask for anything; he is a great professional and human. To say it better, he is a human,” I say to her. She had a similar health issue and asked for my doctor’s info. “I can’t deny that I asked him directly. I in no way wanted to wait for days for no reason and damage my job. “Doctor, I have left my job. I can’t waste time. Please, let me know if you need “anything” for the operation. He immediately got it, and in the same direct manner, he replied, “no, there is nothing else…” (you know, those little, timeless, and so-called “envelopes” in Greece that are asked so you can be treated in a better way as a patient. Let’s be clear, the money I mean). Luckily, he was a human. Not that it did not cross my mind that morning when the operation was not performed. Thank God everything went well the following day. I know it was my mistake that I asked him, as we feed that way that “ailment” in the Health system, but I am a human, too. I fell into that trap. I confess it and regret it…

. . .

The time passed, only a few doctors and nurses were coming and going until I could see none… I got worried. I was at the same corner, lying on the gurney waiting for someone to get me down to my room. Did you see anyone? Neither did I! “Maybe I should go to my room myself,” I thought. “But, no one told me I should do that. No, no way. It seems weird to me after all… Imagine seeing someone barefoot in a johnny looking for his room in the hospital’s corridors… My thinking didn’t last long. A female voice dressed in surprise cut off my thoughts. “Hey, handsome, what are you doing here??? “Oops…hmm…I saw the door wide open and got in,” I wanted to say. How perfectly that would suit the whole situation!) “What am I doing here, the poor man? I am making cookies, don’t you see?!! Are you kidding me? What does ‘what are you doing here’ mean? One thing is for sure; I have not come for coffee!” I wanted to say again, but I swallowed it, wore a polite face, and “You know, I was to undergo surgery, but the doctor had to operate on another patient first.” “Okay, but what are you doing here? We are closing! “You are closing?? Oh my, how can I be that fool? I completely forgot to check the store hours in the morning!!? “Wait here…someone will come and pick you up…” “Oh God, it’s what I have been doing hours now, but neither has come to pick me up nor to… drop me off,” I thought again. Anyway, I could not believe that all that was taking place in a big public hospital. Seriously, I thought I was dreaming.

. . .

Be patient now to keep telling all others in the corridors, outside their rooms, that the operation was canceled. The nurse brought me down to my room, and many other patients on the way wished me a quick recovery. Reasonable, as they had seen me in the morning being taken to the operating room and many hours later being brought back to the room… and you should keep saying that nothing was done. “You look great, feel better soon!” “You know, I’m fine. I just went for a coffee. The ‘launch’ is tomorrow!”

. . .

How insane life is sometimes, or drunk, as I like saying. It often does not know what it’s doing, like another nurse in the operating room who started asking questions about whether I had a “spicy time” the previous night with any women. She wanted to make me feel comfortable shortly before the anesthesia. But my dear, there are other things to say in such circumstances as well. Have you known me for long? Has anyone told you that I am Don Juan of my neighborhood? I was staring at Christ on the cross on the wall, wondering if all will go well, and she… After all, I spent the night in the hospital. Does she not know that I was left in the operating room yesterday till the “store” closed?

. . .

In the end, everything was fine! All went well… The surgeon was proved to be excellent… only at his job. My friend had an appointment with him for a similar health issue. He asked her for that… beautiful, attractive, and “freshly-baked” little envelope! (In simple words, money under the table to proceed with her issue). You never really know anyone, no matter how much you think you do. Was it because when I went to that doctor, that kind of bribing had been in the news? (the police had arrested many doctors) Was it because I was simply lucky? Was it because I was unknown to him, and he feared I might be a trap for him? Was it because my friend was a referral, and the chances of being a trap for him were meager? Was it because his finances were not good at that time? Was it because he wanted to fill his pockets for his upcoming summer vacation? For sure, that doctor “stepped” on people’s pain to earn a hefty “salary,” like many others.

It is strange… Humans have not realized yet that “you make a life by what you give.” They forget that “The truth always comes out in the end, no matter how hard anyone tries to hide it or stop it. Lies are just a temporary delay to the inevitable.”

They forget that the thief and the liar are happy the first year only! (famous Greek saying)

Published: August 21st, 2024 | Last Edited: August 21st, 2024 | MENTAL – THANK YOU, LIFE! | All Stories |