Chez le médecin

 So a visit to the doctor was due. For some years I have frequented a doctor in Villenave, the town where we first rented a little house in France. She’s great. She’s also 30 minutes tram ride and 20 minutes walk away. Meanwhile two new young doctors have opened their offices 10 minutes walk from our flat. The one doctor is an hairy doctor, bearded and with a man bun. The other doctor is a smooth doctor, shaven headed. I went to see the hairy doctor with a little list of issues. Among them :

Is my left ear blocked? I have the stuff from the pharmacist but I cannot manage to look down my own ear, no matter how I try. I’d very much like it if you could peer down my ear and relate what you perceive. He looked. It is.

So am I doing the best thing? I have xylene drops and a rubber ear squirting bulb. What about using hydrogen peroxide (eau oxygénée) or bicarbonate of soda ? 

He shuddered at the idea. No, xylene is the good stuff. Carry on.

Another question concerned mosquito bites. Lately I’m a martyr to them, I really am. In the good old days you’d get an itchy little lump that you must not scratch. Now you get a massive inflammation that seems to last for weeks and penetrates into your joints (they especially go for your ankles, wrists and elbows)

It’s these new tiger mosquitos. Not only are they more agressive. Not only do they hunt all day instead of just at sunrise and twilight. They also have a more allergenic saliva, so they provoke a more extreme reaction in people that are sensitive to them.

So am I using the right stuff? I showed him the tube of hydrocortisone cream spiked with painkillers that the pharmacist gave me. I put this on and it’s healed in perhaps three days. 

This stronger steroid cream is the stuff to use. Put this on and it will be healed right away.

That’s a promise? A promise is for those who hear it, he said. 


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