These past couple of weeks, I've made several trips to the Dr.'s office, testing facilities, and the like. It all started out innocently enough. I had to make an appt. with our family Dr. to get prescription refills, do the annual physical thing, EKG, blood work, mammogram, etc. Dear Husband doesn't really like the Dr. and with him being a diabetic, that is not good. So I made him an appt. too. Kind of " just get it over with now" thing. I scheduled us for the same time with two different Dr.'s so no one would have to wait. In and out, easy peasy..
Husband was in and out.. had his blood work, new prescriptions and was ready to head to the restaurant next door for a quick lunch. I, on the other hand, decided to mention my painful knee. I'd hurt it a few months ago. It wasn't getting better, so I mentioned it.. Well, that requires tests and all kinds of them. The Dr. said that they may as well send me back to the Orthopedic Surgeon I'd had for a previous knee surgery. He could order all the necessary tests. And so started my trips to Dr. offices, and testing facilities..
What can you do there.. you have to wait. For a specialist, sometimes a LONG time. Then the testing places require waiting, disrobing, or clothing adjustments of some type, and waiting in those creepy little rooms.. Well, some of them are nice, but never warm, and there are never any good magazines. I always forget to bring something to read. There are TVs but you can never sit near them, or hear them.. If you can get near one there will be a glowering sign that tells you "Not To Touch The TV". So I decided to think up some things I Can do while waiting in the Dr.'s waiting room, or the testing facility waiting room, or those creepy or not, little waiting rooms.. or those really scary procedure rooms..
First, sit by old people.. they love to talk.. about everything.. They are usually delightfully funny.. of course if you are in a procedure room, or dressing room this is not good. The person is probably lost or a pervert so direct them to the nearest hallway and flag down a medical person.
Go ahead and laugh at other people's jokes or answer their questions.. again, only in the waiting room.. the public one.. At one of my appts. a young man was getting a knee brace. He was being shown in the waiting room, how to put it on and adjust it. His pants were hiked up so the tech could show him.. A delightful older lady told him that he had the best looking leg she'd seen in years.. she laughed and oogled him till he left.. I went and sat by her. She was fun..
Get up and walk around, look at the plants. you can play "is it real or fake" right from your chair, then get up and feel it.. keep score.. get a person in the waiting room to play along too.
Sit by kids. they will always talk to you, of course they will probably have some heinous disease, but hey you're at the Dr.'s office.. everyone there is gonna be sick..
Once you go back to the exam room you can do several things: count the holes in the ceiling tiles, read all the posters, pull apart the plastic heart and play with the parts, count the tongue depressors, (make sure you put on a pair of the plastic gloves first), wash your hands in the sink, tear off a bunch of that wax paper stuff on the exam table to take home, go through all the cabinets and make sure the supplies are well stocked, count the floor tiles, divide by 6, and add 33.. then tweet it to all your friends.
If you are heading to the infamous dressing room: ask for a "happy" gown, wear it backwards, snap it up wrong, play with the bi-fold doors, wander around looking for the "potty room"..
If you are waiting in the procedure room: play with the earplugs, hum show tunes, tweet your peeps all about the weird looking machinery, make up songs about whatever body part is being tested (example: this is the way we make the knee bend, etc) find something to stick up your nose. *Warning, this may cause you to be taken to another procedure room.
I haven't done all these things, but they do sound fun.
Most of the time in the exam room, I make resolutions.. I resolve to lose weight, to eat only non-fat low cholesterol food, to Never eat salt again, to exercise, to stop drinking carbonated beverages, to eat only veggies for lunch, to use my eye drops every 4 hours, to take better care of myself.. I resolve all these things if I can just get a "free pass" this time and be on my way to lunch with my hubby. Next door.. At the Coney Island.. hey maybe I can have just one coney and some curly fries, with a Coke, I'll get diet Coke. before I make the big change.. and maybe some pecan pie too..
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