I never wanted to write on this topic as I never wanted to visit a hospital in US for any illness. But, I had to visit due to the persistent uncomforting in my stomach. Probably, my stomach also can’t digest continuous intake of spicy and delicious Indian food like the natives. I can verify this fact in future.
I heard from my friends that if you want to schedule an appointment with the concerned doctor then the date of appointment may be as long as after 1 month. For my stomach, I wanted a quick consultation from the doctor. This problem has happened in past as well after my arrival in US. But this time it continued for 4 days so I thought that it might be a serious issue and visiting a doctor might be a good idea. After browsing to my university (UMN) hospital, I found that I should go to Gopher QUICK Clinic. Benefit here was that to avail this facility, you need not fix any appointment and I thought for me this was quite an appropriate solution as my problem was not that much serious.
Before going, I asked my friends how much it would cost me. After asking them I figured it out that as I am in Graduate Assistance Plan so I need to pay $10 coy fee and $10 for medicines at the max (This is what I believed). The bigger problem is how to explain my stomach problem in English. I can explain well in Hindi (my native language), but it is hard to explain in English (not much medical words in GRE ;)). I just rehearsed in my head what I need to say and started walking towards the clinic.
When I reached at the counter, I tried to explain my problem to the receptionist so that he could redirect me to a concerned physician (that what I used to do in India). While I was trying to explain him my situation, he asked “Do you have Diarrhea?” and I replied “What?” . The whole picture of a person vomiting and doing watery stools revolved in my mind. I said “NOOO” and gave another try to explain the whole situation. At last he told me to sit in the waiting room. I sat on the chair. While sitting there i was praying that he would have understood exactly what I tried to explain.
It was mention on the sticker that if the waiting time is more than 15 min than I should check again at the reception for my appointment. This was good. After 10 min a doctor came out saying my name. I went with her in a room and it looked like she was not a doctor. She asked me some questions while filling some form. Same problem aroused lack of vocab to explain my situation. She said some new words and I asked for detailed meaning of them. I was taking full care so that the ‘doctor ’properly understand my situation. After 10 min of Q&A session, she asked me that what time was suitable for me to fix an appointment with the doctor. I asked “what?”. My doubt of she not being a doctor was true. After some timing options, she fixed next day @ 9:45 am. Then I asked her what I should eat for one day. She opened a booklet then tried to figure out what can I take. It seemed a little bit awkward to me as in India even a compounder can tell you what you can eat without looking anywhere. Lastly she told me that I was having an appointment with a female doctor .and whether I was comfortable with that? I said yes and asked her why was she asking this type of question. She replied that some time patients have problem with feminine. I was surprised.
Next day, when I reached there, I just had to show my University card and receptionist figured out with whom I had an appointment. This time I was supposed to pay $10. Now again, a new ‘doctor ’ arrived and took me to a new room.
Before going into the room, she took my weight. She again asked the same questions “why are you here? What is the problem? How you feel?” . She asked some questions “Are you single? Are you sexually active
? ” I simply replied “NO”. I couldn’t correlate her question to my stomach pain or stomach disorder. In India, these types of questions are never asked. She also checked my blood pressure and asked me to fill out a form which had all the questions already asked by her. Then she went out by saying that ‘Doctor’ will arrive soon. Finally the ‘doctor ’ arrived and asked me the same questions. This is the third time I was answering the same questions. UFFFFF. This time I told her that I might not be that much explanatory while answering the questions. She told me that you are answering in the same way as normal native person do ? . I know I 
was not but a reason to smile. After a checkup of my stomach, she asked me to go for blood testing and I was afraid of paying again. I first searched for a card swap machine at the blood testing desk and felt relax when I was unable to figure it out.
Before going into the room, she took my weight. She again asked the same questions “why are you here? What is the problem? How you feel?” . She asked some questions “Are you single? Are you sexually active
? ” I simply replied “NO”. I couldn’t correlate her question to my stomach pain or stomach disorder. In India, these types of questions are never asked. She also checked my blood pressure and asked me to fill out a form which had all the questions already asked by her. Then she went out by saying that ‘Doctor’ will arrive soon. Finally the ‘doctor ’ arrived and asked me the same questions. This is the third time I was answering the same questions. UFFFFF. This time I told her that I might not be that much explanatory while answering the questions. She told me that you are answering in the same way as normal native person do ? . I know I 
was not but a reason to smile. After a checkup of my stomach, she asked me to go for blood testing and I was afraid of paying again. I first searched for a card swap machine at the blood testing desk and felt relax when I was unable to figure it out.The procedure of blood sample is same as that we have in India. After that I again went back to the previous room and the actual doctor told me to wait till the report arrived. After some time she came in and told me that there was a problem similar to Diarrhea. I was quite surprised that how could this happen to me without any loose motions. She gave a pamphlet of what to eat and what not to eat in Diarrhea. It was quite surprising as in India doctor used to write all the things on paper. After reading the paper, I was quite confused and discussed with her what all I could take and what need to be avoided. At last, she gave me a free Energy drink and asked me to go to the pharmacy to buy the medicines. She did not tell me the procedure of how to take the medicine.
One more interesting fact was that in the first meeting each doctor asked me my last name and date of birth for verification.While taking in the drink, I moved to pharmacy. There was one window for placing the order and one to pick up.
When I ordered, the receptionist gave me an electronic device which would start vibrating and blinking when my order would be ready. This was quite an amazing device which proved quite effective in removing long waiting queues and also useful for person with disabilities. Technology at its Best. When my device started blinking and vibrating, I went to collect my prescription. After that I was supposed to go to another room where a pharmacist told me how to take all the medicines. The total bill was $8.89.
The overall experience was good and the whole management was awesome. The only irritating thing was to explain my stomach problem to three people. It was little bit frustrating.
