Microcythemia, Calvinism and Germany.
I am writing this post to report the experience of "healthy" microcytemics in a non-Mediterranean healthcare system. In particular, the German one from the Rhine area. But to get the point, I'm going to have to do a lot of explaining and how the healthcare system works. And also the faults of the French. But let's go step by step.
In Germany there is no state employee called "family doctor". There is a private doctor who you authorize to keep your current, past and future medical records (as long as you do not change him), and whose fee will be paid by your Krankenkasse, the insurance which is compulsory (except for the rich, but not very rich, I am in the group that could say "no" to compulsory insurance and keep the money in their pocket), and if you are not employed then the state insurance takes over.
The difference between the state base and the one you have is made up of additional services included in the price. Teeth cleaning twice a year, complete dermatological exam every two years, eye and hearing exam every two years, full dentist's fee in case of expensive procedures, dietician paid at 80%, etc.
So, you come here, get a card from your Krankenkasse, and then with that you go to a doctor and ask if you can have him as a general practitioner. If he has space (he's a private person) he normally says yes. It must be said that the medical practices here are larger than in Italy, they have more doctors and more equipment, given that a blood test is paid for every 3 months, and therefore it is better for them to do it.
The German is efficient , lazy, and wants everything close to home. When I moved about 15 minutes by car between Erkrath and Hilden, my doctor (with whom I got along very well) advised me to find a doctor in Hilden. Impeccable: if I had to drag myself on the asphalt with broken legs, at least I would die a few kilometers from the doctor, and not many kilometers from the doctor.
This produces a phenomenon of segregation: clearly a Moroccan, in order to express himself better, will look for the name of a Moroccan doctor who speaks the language, as do many Italians, the Dutch, the Japanese, etc. I don't look for Italian doctors because I don't have the advantage of the language: since I understand the southern dialects (they emigrated 2/3 generations ago, imagine what my grandparents spoke) worse than German, I prefer German doctors.
But in general, a German doctor treats Germans or Northern Europeans because they speak English very well. I repeat: NRW. I wouldn't swear about English in Thuringia.
First point clarified.
Second point. Germany is suffering from an epidemic mental illness called "Calvinism" or "Calvinist culture". It is particularly widespread in various areas, including the Rhine area, where I live (North Rhine-Westphalia).
This mental illness transforms people into a marble version of Vogon bureaucrats (*) producing a phenomenon that I would call “extremely stable brain”, in the sense that they apparently have no opinions: they have prejudices. Things are this way because I know they are, and I won't change my mind today. And don't fool yourself, tomorrow will also be "today".
On the one hand they are doctors who, when they "know" something, are fussy little buggers and don't stop until they have found the cause of your discomfort. The first Calvinist doctor I found had to deal with my "Seventh Nerve Paresis". It was due to the fact that I slept too little (at the time I was overdoing it), and my body told me “Stop, or you will only be able to scream adrianaaaaaahhhh, like Stallone”.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralisi_di_Bell
As you can see, everything is clear. No. If you go to the German site:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazialisl%C3%A4hmung
you discover that they follow a slightly different nomenclature, where instead of attributing it to Dr Bell, they attribute it to a certain Nicolaus Anton Friedreich, and they treat it differently.
Since I diagnosed it in Italy on Sunday, then took the plane and went to Germany where I returned to the doctor, the difference amazed me. The doctor didn't know what Bell's paresis was, he sent me to the hospital where they admitted me urgently fearing a stroke, the doctor cursed at me, telling me that taking the plane was crazy, and explaining that they had diagnosed me with paresis Bell didn't help.
However, once it was clear that it wasn't a stroke (which they had already ruled out in Italy), they treated me more quickly (in Italy they told me it would take six months, here in a month I was back to normal).
So I said to myself, “well, I'm further along”.
But then again, you may find different procedures here, even though apparently the medicine should all be the same.
But this happens mainly with Calvinist doctors, because since the prognosis is one of exclusion, he made me do all the possible tests, and "I slept two hours a night for months" according to him was not a reason.
Having said that, since we are close to France, they have always competed with the French. In cooking and medicine. In the kitchen they will fill excellent meat with repugnant sauces, believing they are doing like the French. In medicine it's worse.
That is, they inherited this: “the Mediterranean syndrome”.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35623924/
This is a racist myth that French doctors have when they see a patient who comes from a Mediterranean, or North African, area. They divide the symptoms by ten. 'They complain about everything.'
The two Calvinist doctors I had (but now I go back to my old doctor), were both under the influence of this school. What does it mean? It means that if you go to a doctor with the wording "Mediterranean anemia", they are automatically led to think (because of the word "Mediterranean") that it is a theatrical thing, a symptom exaggerated by the patient, in any case something to be ascertained any cost (if you are a Calvinist).
Then, the evil Franks struck again. And in the areas to the west, bordering France, Belgium, Holland, etc, this racist thing is propagated as "science": the Germans are so serious that they are the only people to take a French doctor seriously.
Let's get to the point. What is microcythemia? If you don't come from an area historically affected by malaria, you don't know it. If you come from the Ferrara area, Vallette area (like me), they already took the test in elementary school, before you got married you took the test, etc.
It is a genetic mutation that affects the blood. It makes red blood cells so small that malaria actually doesn't affect them (as in sickle cell anemia). The body compensates by producing more red blood cells, and so on.
Since this mutation makes one resistant to malaria, in the swampy areas malaria killed everyone else except microcytemics, and therefore the mutated gene is widespread. There are many forms, but the most common does not produce any particular problems, except that perhaps you will never win a New York marathon. Many in Ferrara don't give a damn, because we have Lippa. (yes, we invented baseball, only instead of the ball there is a block of wood, and that can be dangerous).
However, that's how it is: according to medical nomenclature it is one of the forms of thalassemia, while Italian doctors consider it for what it is, that is, asymptomatic and essentially harmless.
But the German medito has HIS nomenclature (remember Bell's syndrome, which here is Friedreich's?) , he hears it called "Mediterranean", he has never heard of it because it doesn't exist in Germany, and what does he do?
- My old doctor, a Buddhist to the core, asked me what the hell was happening in my blood, she asked me if I was dead, I replied that I had never died before, and at that point she carefully read all the Italian certificates that I brought her. Obviously he asked me to translate because he didn't read Italian, but since they use Latin terms, it didn't take long. He documented himself somehow, and agreed that, except in the case of serious problems, everything was fine.
- Both of my Calvinist doctors, however, considered me a thalassemia aggravated by a terrible anemia with a terrifying iron deficiency. There is no point in making them read articles and documentation from Italian healthcare, and if by chance you pronounce the word "Mediterranean" you have lost 100% of your credibility, thanks to the French.
Moral of the story, according to my new doctor (who being a Calvinist made me do ALL the fucking tests before accepting me as a patient, since he is a Calvinist and therefore precise to duty), I must not handle knives in the kitchen, go cycling, playing sports, running any risk of injuring myself, and I should start with iron-based medicines which, I believe, are bought at Thyssen rather than in pharmacies.
When I explained to him what sport I did in the past he looked at me and told me I was crazy and reckless. Telling him that in Italy you need a medical certificate to do these sports doesn't impress him: it's a Mediterranean thing.
Moral of the story.
If you come to Germany, remember that:
- The diseases may require different therapies and protocols from those in Italy, even if the diagnosis has the same international nomenclature. Bell or Friederich, it's always the one. But the protocols are different.
- There are pathologies that are common in the Mediterranean, and are unknown here. Just as here there are skin fungi that you don't even dream of in Italy.
- The French are, as usual, arrogant racist dickheads.
- Even though I've only known two Calvinist doctors, I'm starting to think badly of them.
In a nutshell, I'm going back to my old Buddhist doctor. (at least, from the paintings and statuettes he has in his studio, and his approach, I think it is).
(*) The Vogons are a species invented by Douglas Adams. Just as man is descended from ape, they are descended from bureaucrats. To be clear, the poems of this people are lethal for human beings.