When the going gets tough... - Wageningen UR

TYPICAL DUTCHILLUSTRATION: HENK VAN RUITENBEEKDon’t ask me, I’m a (Dutch) doctorHaving lived in the Netherlands for six years I have gone through my fair share of visits to Dutchdoctors.One of the first visits was about a problem which brought me one too many headaches. My GPsent me to several specialists for consultations. After several months of meetings and negativetests I found myself sitting in front of a dermatologist. She had done a test on her first guess at theproblem, which came out negative. When I arrived to pick up the results she casually said, ‘I don’tknow what’s wrong.’ Silence. I asked if it could be an allergy. She praised my analytical skills,saying I might be right and sent me off to do the tests. That was somewhat confusing for me - Igrew up with the notion that it is the doctor who knows best. Yet now I ended up diagnosingmyself.In another consultation I came prepared with a diagnosis. That took me some time, doing thereading beforehand. The doctor wasn’t getting very far so I offered my suggestion. He said I mightbe right and checked it on Google, just in case. He concluded that I was indeed on the right trackand I could do the test.I told a Dutch friend of mine about this, expecting to see her shocked. Yet she regarded it asappropriate that the doctors were listening to me as a patient. Had I known about the listeningskills of the Dutch doctors, I would have known about my allergy a bit quicker than after sixmonths… However, one question still remains: What if I were unconscious? Latina Percheva,Bulgarian MSc student of Environmental SciencesI offered my diagnosisand the doctorchecked it on GoogleDo you have a nice anecdote about your experience of going Dutch? Send it in! Describe an encounterwith Dutch culture in detail and comment on it briefly. 300 words max. Send it to resource@wur.nland earn fifty euro and Dutch candy.