The Resort Doctor

In a previous post, I shared the challenging experience of being ill and going to a Company Doctor in Germany.  A couple of months later, while on vacation, I had a decidedly different experience going to a resort doctor on Rangali Island in the Indian Ocean.

It's about the halfway point on our holiday in the Maldives, and we had already been scuba diving six times and snorkeling just as often.  We had two dives scheduled the next morning (that were great).  After lunch we sunbathed and went into the gorgeous pool.  Later in the afternoon I went snorkeling for an hour to do some tests with Frau A's 10Bar underwater housing & her Panasonic LX3.  By this time, my ears had had enough water -- and became infected.  You've probably had swimmer's ear:  sore to the touch, swelling makes everything sound like it passes through a foot of cotton...

I was hoping to dive some more, but also wanted to have my ears back to normal before flying 4 hours to Qatar and then another 5+ back to Munich.  Luckily, the Conrad has a small clinic on site.  It makes good business sense for them.  They have 350+ employees that live and work on the island, and it's expensive and time consuming to take a water plane back to Male.  Guests can use it too.  So I stopped by.  Here's what it looks like:

In a paradise like this, you're already feeling better just walking up.  Soft, white sand paths lead almost all the way up to the front door!  The glass etched sign also communicates modernity, so you have confidence too.  Frau A noticed that the M.D.'s flip-flops outside the door were labeled "doctor" (pic below).  Cute.  And who wouldn't trust a barefoot doctor?  You, the doc, and his assistant are all barefoot inside to keep the sand out.

I had to wait about 6 minutes before the doctor saw me.  The doctor was polite, looked at my ears, made the obvious diagnosis, and immediately prescribed antibiotic ear drops, which he handed right to me.  No trip to a pharmacy.  Unfortunately, I was not allowed to swim, but Frau A did some more snorkeling and underwater photography.

Two days later, the ears weren't much better, so I visited the doc again.  This time there was a 14 minute wait (one person ahead of me).  He checked things out again, was unhappy with the progress, and handed over full antibiotic pills.  All of this at no charge!  He said it didn't make sense to mess around, especially since I was flying in 48 hours and the initial treatment didn't work as expected.  Sure enough, it worked.  He was fast, polite, and practical.

We loved the time on Rangali island, and give kudos also to great service by Conrad's on-site doctor!  Now it's back to work, and I'm gorging on vitamin C to avoid the company doctor this winter...