Before my move to Stockholm earlier this year I went to get a prescription renewed at the doctor. Once there I decided to ask him for an allergy test as well as I have been planning to have one done for some years now without managing to actually get my ass over to the hospital. I have experienced allergic reactions since I was thirteen and it has always been during a specific period of time each summer, however, I have never gotten it black on white exactly what causes these allergic reactions, something I figured it was time to find out.
To my utmost surprise I got to go to the lab right away and have the test carried out and I left just minutes after with the information that my results would be in within a week or two. I was surprised at how smooth it had all gone! However, weeks became months and the doctor was never heard from again. In May I started a new job as a controller at a healthcare company in Stockholm that, amongst other things, test for allergies and so it happened that I was offered to have one done during a visit to one of our labs. I got my result just hours after handing over my blood test and it showed an allergy to grass.
After this day I decided to make a new attempt of getting in touch with my doctor back home in order to find out whether or not the test that I took in january showed the same result as the one taken in May. After some calls I finally got to speak to a human being, a nurse at the local health care centre. She sounded very surprised when I told her about not having heard back about my test taken in January and so she promised to inform the doctor in charge. Just days later the letter arrived at my door.
When reading the paper sent to me by the doctor I was stunned! Had it not been for the fact that I have spent the passed few weeks going through the different analysis carried out by our lab instruments the information on the piece of paper that reached me today might as well have been written in greek! And I must say that the hand written comment left by the doctor did not make it any better. Jotted down in barely readable text stood the words “The tests show an oversensitivity, in other words: you are allergic! Regards, XX”. I mean, come on, THAT is no news! I already knew I was allergic, I didn’t need a blood test to figure that out. The question was WHAT I was allergic to, and that was not something this doctor pointed out, or even attempted to find out with his test. What a joke!
So, first thing tomorrow: calling up the doctor asking him what the h**l his letter was all about!
