Doctor Visits

Once upon a time, I had a regular physician with whom I was quite satisfied.    She obviously didn’t feel the same way, she sold her business…do you call patients ‘business?’   She sold her practice to some yay-hoo, and went north.  I didn’t bother to change doctors, and I ended up liking him just fine.   He apparently didn’t feel the same; he gave his patient records away to another set of doctor-hoos, and moved south.  This time, I have rebelled, and I have appointment with my new choice next month.   I hope I like her.

When I was a kid…before you saw a doctor, you had to be turning blue.  Or red, like the time I cut my arm so bad I required both an inside and outside row of stitches.   These days, kids are taken to the doctor for a stuffy nose.     By the time I considered myself an adult (pregnant,)  and had to see a doctor, I really didn’t know what to expect!  I had never been, how would I know?  I’d heard stories that made me shudder in horror…but my reality was that I had to go to one of “those” doctors.

My friend, The Flirtatious Miss M, had a kidney or bladder…or some type of infection, and had to see a doctor.  They told her to undress; she refused, and would not be swayed.  After much discussion and some deliberation, they finally gave her an antibiotic and sent her on her way.   I’m not sure if she’s ever been back to a doctor.   She never had any kids.  I am not sure if the two events (or lack of events, as it were) are related.

As for me…I didn’t really have the thought to refuse, though refuse I did, at first.   A nurse, or most likely, an aide, brought me to a room.    Smack in the middle of said room was one of “those” tables, complete with stirrups.   She told me to undress, and she’d be back.   There was no lock on the door and no little curtain to hide behind.   What bothered me most, however, was the fact that there was no sheet.   No cover-up!   No little surgical gown, not even a paper robe!   No way was I going to get naked in that room and wait for ~whomever~ to open the door and~ whomever else~ in the hallway to see me perched like a hairless Chihuahua on the examination table!

Picture taken from PetDogLife

When the aide came back into the room, she said…”Oh, you haven’t gotten undressed.”   I am sure there was horror on my face.   There was certainly horror in my young and inexperienced heart.    She finally noticed that there was no sheet.    These days, you don’t get sheets, you get Kleenex.   Or paper gowns.   Same thing.   I survived the ordeal….just as I survived giving birth.   If you are unlucky, one day I will write about that.

Today, you are not so unlucky.

By the way, the doctor lady I’m going to visit next month isn’t even one of “those” doctors.

Thankfully.