One of the things that I have successfully avoided in my time here so far was being sick enough to actually have to find a doctor here. As discussed in the posting on the pharmacy, the idea of trying to explain symptoms is not exactly something that is covered in a basic German language course. So I continue to seek online counsel from my doc in the US.
But about six weeks ago, I was feeling really dizzy for a couple of days, one day it was bad enough and getting worse that I left work while it still seemed safe to drive. The next morning was bad, but I figured I must have some kind of inner ear issue and should get in to see a doctor. I recalled that my assistant had found a walk-in clinic for a Polish colleague, so I figured wherever that was must speak English. Alas, she could not recall where she had sent him, but she did note that it was Friday and the doctor came to our office a few hours that day.
Now, if you're like me, you did a double-take at that. A doctor? In OUR offices? Recall that I work for a professional services firm, not someplace with dangerous machinery (though sometimes our paper jam prone copier becomes a danger when I want to kick it), so the idea of a doctor around is, well, odd. But then I realize I am in Germany and somethings things are a bit different here. So she got an appointment and I went down to see him. Nutshell, no inner ear issue, but I had high blood pressure at the time, which was news to me. He asked if I had experienced much stress lately. Ha!! Anyway, he suggested that I go to his regular office the following Monday morning. At that time, they would outfit me with a blood pressure monitor that I would wear for 24 hours, it would record my information and they could then download that at their office and determine if there was a persistent issue or if they had just caught me at a particularly stressful time that Friday. And his office was conveniently located in Sachsenhausen, my neighborhood. Perfect!
So Monday morning came and I set Hudson's GPS to the task of finding the office. As I approached it, I was a bit confused, because it looked like an apartment building. Yep, pretty much. But there was a listing for him and another doctor, so up the stairs I walked, passing apartments listing the family names of the occupants. Not exactly what I am used to.
When I arrived at the right floor, the door to the office was slightly ajar. Okay.... I walked in and found a guy sitting at a desk wearing a sweater, not exactly what I expected of a receptionist or nurse or whatever. But he showed me to the waiting room, which, this being an apartment and all, had a balcony outside of a sliding glass door. I have not encountered that in a doctor's office before. All of the magazines were in neat little matchings covers. Interesting.
The doctor finally came out himself and took me to an office. He was wearing a blood-red cashmere v-neck sweater and some corduroy pants. No lab coat. No stethoscope. No trappings of doctor power. Interesting. He took me to what seemed like a regular office and we sat across the desk from each other and he asked if I was ready for the blood work. Um, blood work? I thought perhaps something had been lost in our conversation the previous Friday and reminded him that I thought I was just there to get the blood pressure monitor. Oh, ja, ja!
So he took me to a different room that also featured a desk and seem more like an exam room, except not really. The other sweater-wearing guy came in and tried to outfit me with the device. Couldn't get it to work. It's like a really ugly black sportswatch and it has to be calibrated twice in order for it to work. For whatever reason, it refused. We tried various combinations and permutations. We tried the other arm. The doctor attempted to assist. 90 minutes later still no deal. I swear, all jokes about accountants and lawyers being heartless aside, I DO have a pulse! But as I was watching all of this and having my wrists yanked this way and that, I continued to examine the examining room. What strikes me the most is that the entire office is carpeted. I don't think I have ever been in a carpeted exam room for, I assume, the obvious risk that some messy things can happen in exam rooms that might be difficult to clean up on carpet.
They never did get the blood pressure monitor to work. I ended up buying an automated blood pressure cuff and took some hourly readings for a few days. Not surprisingly, I experience pre-hypertensive readings primarily when I am in the office, particularly when I am talking about budgeting and capital expenditures. Go figure. I keep the cuff in my office and every once in a while take my blood pressure just to see where I am. I do, of course, track all of this on an Excel spreadsheet and have made some graphs that I find both fascinating and horrifying. But it has become something of a joke, now. When my guys see I am getting worked up about something, they ask if I'd like to take some time out to check my blood pressure. All in good fun, of course. Makes me laugh. Which I suppose probably brings my blood pressure down. Love my peeps!
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