Further Mmms – Chez le medecin et les medicaments

I hadn’t been feeling great for most of the past week and when Monday came I couldn’t face getting up and going to school. Some suggestions had been made about my mystery illness- some thought it was homesickness, others too much Peket, still others not enough!  Chantal kindly made an appointment with her doctor for me and off we trotted in the afternoon. Actually, I don’t mean that literally as I was feeling so miserable I could hardly put one hoof after the other so she took me in the car.

In Belgium, one goes to the doctor’s house it seems, or to the doctor’s basement anyway. We rang the doorbell; the door opened automatically and we walked into a small white waiting room. The doctor’s credentials were hung on the wall – he specialised in sports medicine – not a great lot of use to me I thought. After a few minutes, the doctor arrived and ushered me into another room. He said he didn’t speak much English and he was right. I said I was pretty sure I had the flu ( in French) and he seemed to understand my accent. He gave me a good going over and then pronounced or I think he did that I had sinusitis, laryngitis and bronchitis. I was quite impressed with this list. I asked him if I should go to school the next day, but no, he was giving me the week off as I would need 6 days to recover! I was a mite surprised as I hadn’t realised that I was that sick. He gave me medical certificate for school – you need one here for anything more than a day off sick.

 Later, Chantal asked me if I could go out or if I had to stay at home. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about but she pointed to a place on the form where it says ‘Sortie’ and it’s either autorisee or interdit. Mine was autorisee which means I could still go out and about on my sick days. Apparently people sometimes come to check if you are really sick and if you have ‘sortie interdit’ and you’re not at home when the checkers come – watch out! We collected a whole lot of medicine on the way home ($60 dollars worth –more expensive than the actual doctor’s visit as no subsidies applied to me!)

It’s now Thursday and I’ve been taking my drugs and I’m feeling a lot better. I had a cellphone call from Daniel at school and the 4^th grade class had been asking how I was and they yelled out ‘hello’ into the phone which was nice. I’ve learnt a lot about the dos and don’t of illness. Daniel says hot milk, honey and rum 4x a day. Chantal says Thyme herbal tea with thyme honey and absolutely no cold drinks or ice cream. I disappointed her by having several ice creams – they were so soothing on my throat. I was supposed to ask the doctor whether I should eat ice cream or not, but I forgot. Was thinking I might go back to school tomorrow but its cold and raining at the moment so if it continues it wouldn’t be such a great idea.