It was Sunday July 1st when I realized that my right eye turned very red and I felt a bit of pain in my eye. It looked very creepy, just like a satanic eye. I tried not to do anything with it. Our two friends came visiting us and they recommended that I should go to a doctor for my eye. After chatting with our friends, Mas Tom took me to an hospital nearby our place in Oakland. We went to the Alta Bates Hospital. As a new patient, I had to register at the front desk to fill in the name, address, purpose of coming and the time we arrived there. It was at 2.56 pm when we got there. There were several people waiting to be checked. I chose a chair close to a couple while smiling at them. One by one was called to enter the Emergency Room (ER), I was still patient waiting for being called. It was 4:15pm when it was my turn to enter the ER. A tall good-looking black male nurse having a tattoo in his arm checked my blood pressure and my body temperature. He told me that both my blood pressure and my temperature was fine. He did not check my eye, but he asked me many questions.
Q: "what made you come here?"
A: "my red eye"
Q: "Do you smoke, drink or under some medications"
A: "No", I smiled
Q: "Are you depressed of some levels?"
A: "No"
Q: "Do you have tendency to hurt yourself or other people?"
A: "No"
Q: "How do you rate your pain in your eye, if I give 1 to 10?"
A: "is 10 the highest?"
Q: "yes, the pain is like if you have a broken arm"
A: "one" I said
Then the nurse said, "you can go out and we will call you again for further diagnose". I went out from the room after thanking him.
I went out from the ER and sat in front of the TV that showed a baseball match. I had no idea how it went.
Well, finally I was called again to enter the medical room. I was checked by a doctor and he asked many questions as well. He told me that it was just very normal people got red-eye for unknown reasons. He gave me prescriptions for my red-eye.
After thanking him, I went out and home.
All in all, it was a great personal experience to be in an Emergency Room in the US where people were so friendly and cared about what happened to us by asking so many questions which I was never asked in my country before when I visited a doctor.
