Peter Sellers - my primary doctor

My choice of doctor is simple, he/she should be close by, always available to see me at all times, and willing to lie to my employer if I don’t feel like going to work.. With the new medical insurance reform in France, we now have to choose our primary doctor. Dr. R is on top of my list, because he satisfies fully to the above criteria and with an additional quality – very entertaining.

Recommended by the pharmacist in the neighborhood, I came to know Dr. R a couple of years ago. His clinic is 200 meters from my apartment, next to my usual newspaper vender and before the butchery where I get good quality meat.

Dr. R is in his 40s, reliable looking honest man with black framed glasses. He has the most beautiful plants of all the doctors I ever visited ever in my life. The first visit I made to his clinic, he spent 30 minutes explaining to me all the plants he had on his balcony, their names and where they came from. This was also the time when I saw a very cool black and white picture of Peter Sellers on his shelf, Dr. R looked exactly like Peter in that picture. One other time, I asked if he was a brother or cousin of Peter Sellers, his answer was no, but then in his voice I sensed joy.

In a world where doctors and lawyers are rushing to serve you, get your check and push you out of the door. Dr. R is really one of a kind.

Every time I called him and he was always available and ready to see me, I don’t even have boyfriends who are this available to me. After some 30 minutes entertaining discussions, I explain my health problem. He would always look at me behind his glasses with an ample pause of at least 2 minutes, and then he would stand up and go his book shelf and pick out his gigantic medical dictionaries, sometimes several of them and lay them out on his table. He then would try to find the exact name of the illness and read the symptoms aloud to me. When these symptoms did not match too well to my problems, we would then go to another illness until we find the problem and also the solutions in those huge dictionaries. A very collective and interactive process indeed. If Peter Sellers plays in a new movie called ‘The Pink Panther Strikes Back in the Doctors Office’ or ‘The Party II – at the doctors office’, I could play the patient. This dream gave me strength and hope in life, and faith in my doctor.

I never doubted the medical competence of Mr. Peter Sellers, but by the time I had the prescription in hand and walked into the pharmacy, I somehow remembered to double and triple check with the pharmacist.

It has been 2 years and 3 months since I have become patient of Dr. R and I am still alive, he dealt all my little health problems with patience, grace and most importantly entertainment. Therefore, he is elected to be my primary doctor. Dr. R- Peter Sellers incarnated indeed.