I feel I have hit a milestone, that’s right… I am so darn proud of myself that it has come to this. When your blog actually gets readers, there comes along with those readers, questions or concerns about a topic. It will happen on occasion (but hopefully not very often) that you have to retract, adjust, explain or make less complicated something you have posted. So, I have hit that milestone (applause). I have found it necessary to EXPLAIN a bit more about the post titled “Visiting a Dr. in Brazil”.
Here were the issues that a few readers brought to my attention, and I feel that some things need clarification, not justification, just plain old clarification.
The example I gave of a “regular” Dr. office visit in the USA, was based on my “Personal” experience. I NEVER once had a consultation at a Dr.'s office that was a converted home. In fact, the only time I had any type of appointment in a home was when I was taking piano lessons ( a nightmare I would like to forget). So, I was speaking based on experience. As was mentioned by a reader, in the past, there were a lot of homes that were Dr.'s offices. So, for people my parents age, it must not seem as strange, but as things develop you would naturally assume that as people see the “Office” advance to structures such as clinics built as clinics and not as homes. With the change, you would expect to see attitudes change as well, and even though the service provided is of the same level, you would see a prejudice or preference for something that “feels” modern. Or am I wrong?
This might not be the best example, but when I was back home visiting family last November, and I was riding home from the flea market with my brothers. My brother's phone rang and his little girl was on the phone. She was all excited about getting this “Old Fashioned” candy bar. She told him all about it, how it came in a foil wrapper and how cool that was. It turned out it was a Symphony Bar… the very same candy we ate as teenagers. To us, it was a bar we ate as kids, yet to her it was this “old fashioned” candy and it was so different that it was exciting to her to experience eating it. So, I guess you could say that the experience of sitting in a converted home, waiting to be called to the old kitchen to see the Dr. was like me holding an “old fashioned” candy bar. It was so strange, interesting… but will I like it? Is it as good? I don’t know… because I have never experienced it.
The second clarification I need to make is about the Brazilian example I gave. I had a comment from a Brazilian who said… “I have never had a Dr.'s appointment in a home, that makes it sound really bad. “. I then stopped to think about why my experience would be so entirely different from that of a Brazilian. I mean, I have been to about 15 different doctors and all but one was in a house. I then realized that there must be something about the way a Brazilian sees the building. I think they are viewing it as a clinic because that is what they know. It doesn't remind them of a home. I hope I was clear with one thing though, the doctor does not work
from home, but the office is a
converted home. That means, at some point the place was used as a home or was built as a home originally. At some point the home went through renovations to become an office. I guess though to a Brazilian this isn't always as evident as it is to someone who is not used to it.
As I sit here writing this, I am waiting for Mariana outside of an “office”. The office was obviously once a home, you can tell it is a home because there is a bathtub in the bathroom. And believe me… a bathtub in a home in Brazil is a rare thing, so in a Dr.'s office, it is an even stranger fixture. I look up the street and there are 6 Doctor's offices and every single one of them is in a home. They are Clinics, built in what was once a personal house.
Just like in the USA, depending on the amount of money you have, you can have a completely different experience. In Brazil just like the USA, money talks. If you have nothing, your service is different than if you can pay for a private doctor to give you bedside treatment in your own home.
In Brazil they have had free public health care (I will post about it some other time, since it is a topic that is interesting to me. ) as well as expensive private insurance. If you have money, you can afford modern and advanced health-care. However, that does NOT take away from the FACT that MANY doctors still practice from CONVERTED homes.
One last point I would like to clarify is when I talked about Dr.’s not giving proper examinations. I have walked away from several appointments feeling like the doctor only listened and did not look. That is MY experience. I have also had the same problem in the states on occasion. I do have two really good doctors who do a complete exam each time I go to the office. That type of treatment is what I am used to from doctors. I didn’t mean that all doctors only listen and don’t examine, It all depends on the quality of Dr. I recently went to a stomach doctor (the same one who sent me for a colonoscopy) and she never once sat me on her table to push, poke or do any type of exam. It was all verbal. However the first stomach doctor I went to was very good and did a complete exam. So, each doctor is a separate case.
So, in all of this… I just want to make it very clear, I don’t feel like there is a lack of education or lack of experience with doctors here. If you get sick in Brazil, you are going to have a good level of care, you won’t be left to die or have to worry any more or less about malpractice. It is just a different experience for me, and sort of like holding that “old fashioned” candy bar… it‘s “old fashioned“ nature makes it something "new" for me to experience.
