Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Thumbs down to this Dutch experience.

It's funny, I never listened to the radio back in KL cuz I hated all the hip hop and R&B they constantly play. But over here, I find myself tuning in to the Top 40 internet radio stations. They're slightly better than the friggin Hitz.fm who only play egotistical hip hop, as they have a better mix of rock, pop and dance among the R&B and hip hop. And also, I guess it reminds me of being in KL, listening to the same music.

Anyway, as part of my immigration and naturalisation procedure here, I had to go for a TB checkup at the hospital yesterday. We biked there early so there wasn't a queue, and I could go in immediately.

My number was called and I had to go to a certain door. I'd assumed it would be a room behind, where there'd be a doctor or nurse to take my x-ray.

Well, I was right in that there WAS a room, but it was a room about the size of the backseat of a car.

I went, huh? what am I supposed to do? Then I saw the signs mounted on the wall...


I was supposed to friggin strip my entire top half! And they don't even provide a gown! I was so hesitant and apprehensive about this, especially as there was no one to talk to. What if the door on the other side of the room opened, and a man doctor walked in and got surprised to see a topless girl?

I slowly just removed my jacket, then my sweater, when a lady knocked and opened the door inside. She asked for my forms and I confirmed with her if I should remove everything. She said yes.

Ugh! This was so awkward and strange. I'm no stranger to taking x-rays and they always give me a gown to wear to walk over to the machine, but apparently this place doesn't. It's really strange to have to strip, and not even have a friendly nurse making you feel more at ease.

This is Netherlands for you, honestly. These sorts of places are so clinical and cold. Like pharmacies. It's already enough that you want to maybe get some intimate stuff like pads or tampons, or maybe off-the-shelf vitamins for constipation or whatever. But the whole environment is so unfriendly and the whole shop is just telling you to "Get what you need and get the heck outta here.". There is hardly any human touch where you need it.


This is how small the room I was in is. I was standing right at the corner, and could only walk about 1.5 steps before I'd hit myself on the other wall.

Anyway, I removed everything, the lady came back and told me to walk halfway across the room, about 5 steps, to the x-ray machine. Topless. Again, I repeat, it's extremely strange to walk across a cold room, completely topless.

Was instructed to press my chest against the machine and put my hands on my waist and push my elbows forward. My hair is shoulder length, so she needed to pin it up. It felt like she was using a clothes peg to pin my hair up! First embarrassing moment. Okay, second one. The 'clothes peg' is connected by a string to the machine, so she placed that string across the top of my head so that it wouldn't hang next to my head and disrupt the x-ray process. Third embarrassing moment.

I'm standing there with my boobs pressed against a cold, smooth machine, posing like a high fashion model, hands on hips, with hair pegged up by a clothes peg and a string across my head. Omg.

It was over in 5 seconds though. I could then walk back to the tiny backseat room and get decent again. She passed me back the form halfway through and told me I could now go to the IND and get the whole process done.

Gawd, I hope I never have to get another x-ray done. Or do anything else at a Dutch hospital, for that matter.

4 comments:

Mumsy said...

welcome to the developed world? except UK was very friendly wasn't it.. and aussies r friendlier too

Mumsy said...

trust u will nvr b naturalised to become cold n impersonal like NL..change the world, shoobs, teach them to be warm n friendly

frachely said...

It's almost the same here, except that they provide robes haha. I went to a quite-expensive hospital & a gov. org for x-rays b4 and both are almost the same: changing rooms r very small, no nurse was there to help, etc. they just call ur name and u go in and get everything done. does this only happen to small countries haha

oo it just strikes me, prob they want to be more 'efficient'? afterall not everyone is as chillax as our ppl haha

shoobaba said...

The lady was efficient and professional enough, but it was only the robe I wished they had. Isn't a basic human right to have privacy? Isn't the West big on human rights? :P