I live in Japan.
I have a medical condition that needed urgent care in the past. It improved and was told to seek medical attention if it worsened because it is neurological. The thing is that it started as a backache, so I went to an orthopedist who took an X-ray and gave me painkillers. Since the pain would not leave after two weeks, I decided to see a local neurology clinic–thought it could be related to the episode needing care. He took an MRI and found nothing but said it could be neuropathy. He advised getting my sugar, hormones, and spine checked.
I got all of them checked. The last orthopedist, specialized in spine care, said my issue was neurological and that I should get a referral to go to a big hospital. As I was waiting for an appointment with my neurologist, I was in such a bad shape that I ended up riding an ambulance to a hospital in Itabashi. They simply gave me acetaminophen and a letter to Teikyo.
I went to Teikyo, and by the time I got there, I had not been able to sleep. The doctor told me to "gaman" the pain and lack of sleep till an EMG test is conducted in two week's time. He said that if my symptoms worsened, I should come back. They did worsen and came back after calling.
During my second appointment, the doctor refused to give me any medication to help me with the pain. When I asked how the prognosis of being 12 days withstanding pain that would not let me sleep, he started yelling at me and even said "do you really speak Japanese?" all of this in Japanese, of course. I just told him that what he had said did not make any sense and that he had to stop yelling at me. He stopped. He told me that in any case, if the symptoms worsened, I should come back.
This had never happened to me, and I have lived in 4 countries thus far. However, it could be normal. After leaving the room, I told the secretary to retrieve my referral because I wanted to go somewhere else. She said it would cause more trouble. and offered a different doctor. I gave up and declined her offer. The 患者相談窓口 was not any better either. They simply apologised and said they would escalate the feedback. I just told them that a yelling doctor should not be seeing patients at all.
My priority was finding a neurologist treating generalized pain and numbness, and I came across a clinic in Ginza. The neurologist works with Juntendo, and she immediately prescribed medication for pain: she said that pain can worsen the condition due to stress and that I should have been explained what the EMG was for–it is invasive apparently–and that basically, asking questions was something normal. Her examination was way more completely than the one at the university hospital.
My question is: is this normal? I had heard from my Japanese coworkers and friends that hospitals are horrible, but this is on a new level. I would like to know how to protect myself because it seems that nobody can question anything here, which means negligence would just we ignored.
by Academic-Compote3183