A wee bit 'o me own back


...which I needed

So, my internist's office staff decided I couldn't have any more allergy med refills unless I came in for a check-up. OK, it had been over a year, but I of necessity go to both the endocrinologist and the ob / gyn regularly. The former does all sorts of blood work on me and the latter a pretty thorough exam b/c a lot of women are like me and use him for their annual check-up. I'm sorry but as far as I'm concerned the internist is just there for when I'm sick; his office runs waaaay behind their appointment schedule and that plus him being a half-hour's drive from the house means losing a good two or more hours to see him.

But I needed my allergy meds (badly) so yesterday I went in. And sho' nuff, it was a half-hour past my appointment time before they hauled me out of the waiting room. So they sent me over to the scale; I dropped my magic bag of holding (AKA my 10-pound purse), slipped off my 2-inch-plus wedge sandals and hopped on. The scale was sitting well above my current weight and even a good bit above what I weighed last Christmas before I decided I wasn't in a body I wanted to be wearing a swimsuit on for a week in Hawaii. But I didn't think anything of it, because I've never been to a doctor's office where they pre-set it before you get on, have you? But... the nurse stared at the scale, then she stared at the front page of my chart, then she stared at the scale, then she flipped through the pages of my chart. And then she says, "What's your date of birth?" I happen to know they have at least two patients with my name because they always ask that on the phone and tell me why. I told her my birth date, and I peeked at the chart and yes, it was mine. So I (rather drolly) told her to try starting at what I'm currently averaging, weight-wise. Which was damn near 20 lbs. lighter, heh-heh. I don't know if they felt bad about how late they were running and had pre-set the scale to my previous weight plus a pound or two because it'd been a while (the average person gains about a pound a year after age 40 just from metabolism drop) to save time, or if the last person on the scale was close enough to my weight that she thought she should have been able to just jiggle the one-pound weight and find me easily. Either way, it almost made up just a wee bit for sitting in a freezing-cold waiting room for a half-hour.

Unfortunately, I had another half hour of sitting in a freezing-cold exam room (in my clothing, not a paper gown, but still...) before I saw the doctor's shining face. And as usual, the first thing he asked was, "Why are you here?" Which, if I didn't know really meant, "Tell me about it," I'd get all snarky and say "read the chart, bucko," but I do know that's just the phrase he uses. So I said, "To say hey and to get my allergy meds refilled." He took my blood pressure, which is always fabulous, and listened to my heart and lungs and made sure I was going to the endocrinologist and the OB, checked to see if I needed a bone-density test (no, I just had one three years ago and my plumbing isn't shutting down yet.) I said I was having allergy symptoms walking outdoors right now even taking my meds, and also that I had lung pain if I had to walk very far outdoors when it was cold. He said to use Daughter's inhaler when the lung pain happened, but since that was only once or twice a year not to go get an asthma work-up. He bumped up my dosage of antihistamine and refilled my nasal spray, and wrote me up for the normal cholesterol / blood sugar tests which I hate because that means no breakfast and not even milk in my tea. I paid, and I was out of there less than 15 minutes after he walked into the exam room, but a full hour and 45 minutes after I'd left the house that morning. And I was FREEZING. It was 87°F out, and it felt wonderful.

Then I went and fought the lunchtime crowds at the warehouse club. Happy Friday to me.

Posted: Sat - September 29, 2007 at 11:17 AM   Home         | | View Technorati reactions

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