After a full lab test, endoscopy, colonoscopy, and biopsy, I was diagnosed with an intestinal condition last week, and the doctor prescribed me some pills to cure it. It’s a rather rare condition, but it’s not super serious and it can be cured quickly by taking the pills for 10 days.
As I usually do, I double-checked everything with our family doctor (who also happens to be a gastroenterologist) back in my country, mostly to make sure I understood everything correctly. I trust my Japanese skills, but I don’t want to get overconfident when it comes to health-related matters. Apparently, the medicine I was prescribed isn’t used to treat this condition, and he told me the name of the one that is. I googled it and, indeed, the medicine I was prescribed was nowhere to be found when searched for together with my condition, while the one the doctor back home mentioned was. I know that sometimes some drugs aren’t available in Japan, so I googled it in Japanese too, and there it was – many Japanese gastroenterology articles and clinic websites talking about the same medicine the doctor back home mentioned, without any mention of the one I was prescribed.
I can’t help but think I was prescribed the wrong medication, for whatever reason. Should I try to reach out to the original doctor and ask him about this? The doctor was okay, but he was a pretty stern and curt old guy who seemed annoyed the whole time, and I had a weird vibe when he showed me the lab results and then pulled out a booklet where he looked for the medicine that he should prescribe. Not that he has to memorize every single thing, but a human mistake seems more likely in that case. In any case, I don’t want to deal with some old guy getting offended for doubting him (disclaimer: I’m not saying he is, I’m saying he might be, and I don’t want to find out).
Should I just try to go to a different gastroenterologist here? Either option seems hard during this time of year, but I don’t want to just wait until the holidays are over and keep taking a medicine that might end up not curing what I have, or even causing something else.