Visiting the doctor

Today was supposed to be my first visit with a French dentist but the appointment got cancelled because he is sick...seems like the whole of Paris is sick, sauf moi! In my class today, the 3 others in my discussion group where all coughing and hacking. Then on the subway home everyone was blowing and sniffing, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that the doctor is also sick. I was actually looking forward to seeing the dentist, as it's been almost 3 years since I've been to one, plus I'm curious to see how the French dentists are compared to the medical doctors. Going to the doctor here is really strange. The first time I called the doctor a woman answered with "hello", well in French, of course. So, I asked, "Is this Dr. Pradell's office?", also in French. The woman said, "Yes, this is the doctor." Well, first of all, I was taken aback that the person didn't answer with "Good morning this is Dr. Pradell's office" and, secondly, that it was the doctor herself answering the phone! How many times does that happen in the States? Well my experience here is that most of them do answer their own phones because they don't have receptionists! When I went to her office she was the person who buzzed me into the building, as all buildings here have security codes for the entry doors. Then she came to the door and called me in when she was ready for me. Her office was actually in an apartment building, again many here are, on the second floor with NO elevator! So, what about the patients who are not able to climb stairs? The office itself was furnished with only her desk and a chair on the other side for the client. She did have a computer on her desk which is the first I had seen. (I have previously been to a couple of specialists, non of whom had computers.) When she examined me she had me to go into an adjacent room where there was an examination table but no over head lights or any type of extra equipment. But the end of the visit is the strangest of all because I paid her directly in cash, again, all the previous specialists were the same. I don't know why but there's something very odd feeling about paying the doctor directly, it just doesn't feel right to me. Oh, one last thing, she ordered a bunch of tests so I had to go to the different labs to have those done and each gave me the results directly. I ended up going back to my doctor so she could read the results but when I left I took all the X-rays, lab results, etc. with me and now I am responsible for keeping the originals of my own medical files! Guess I'm going to have to get a filing cabinet at some point.