A rainy day here, the bulk of it spent at the doctor’s office — or at least that’s how it seemed at the time. I had a 10:30 appointment with the urologist, but for whatever reason, I ended up waiting almost two hours before I was seen. Most of that was spent in the magazine-free exam room, me just twiddling my thumbs and occasionally sending out a bored tweet with my cell phone.
A nurse practitioner, and then the doctor, finally came in a little after noon. And the short version is, I’m pretty much okay. I had an exam, and now I have a couple of prescriptions to hopefully take care of my symptoms, which aren’t indicative of anything too serious. (They’ve been more worrisome and discomfiting than painful, and they haven’t gotten progressively worse since late September.) I go back for another appointment in a month, hopefully with all of this resolved. And hopefully never needing to go back to a urologist until I’m at least as old as most of the other patients I saw there today. (Sixty- or seventy-year-old men, I suspect, are urology’s bread and butter.)
The place, incidentally, was huge, affiliated with a local hospital. How huge? A woman came in, asking for directions to another office, and the woman behind the front desk told her to go back out and make a left at the piano, and then… Seriously, if a medical practice has a piano in the lobby, that’s pretty huge.
Overall, the appointment went well and helped to alleviate some of my concerns. (I kept flashing back to this Mike Birbiglia bit where he notes that it’s never good news when they say they’ve found something in your bladder. “We’ve found something it your bladder…and it’s season tickets to the Yankees!”) I go back in mid-December, so we’ll see what happens.
I have an 8:30 appointment then, so maybe I can even get out of there before noon!
I’m guessing the doctor was waylaid by surgery or an urgent consult. I get all het up when I wait forever at the neurologist’s office…until the last time, when I heard the secretary telling somebody that he was in the ICU with a stroke patient.
It doesn’t make the waiting any easier or less nerve-wracking, though. And I’m glad that the appointment went well…hopefully this will take care of things for you.
It was at least partly a biopsy, which they told me had been scheduled but was moved to the building next door. (Maybe the one with the full string orchestra?) I wasn’t so much upset — it’s a busy practice with much more serious cases than mine; things happen; and they were politely apologetic. But I was bored out of my mind. In a way, that almost helped. I almost couldn’t be nervous by the time the doctor came in — I was just glad something was happening.
Most of that was spent in the magazine-free exam room, me just twiddling my thumbs and occasionally sending out a bored tweet with my cell phone.
Wow. You know, in my mind, walking into a doctor’s office without a book is about as thinkable as walking in without pants. 🙂
I’m glad to hear you’re more or less okay, though, and here’s hoping the drugs do help!
I didn’t expect to be waiting that long. And certainly, if I was waiting long, for it to be in the waiting room, with magazines or even (ugh) daytime TV at my disposal. I think I was a little too nervous to have really concentrated on a book. Still, after two hours, I definitely wished I’d brought along something.
This is why you need to learn how to knit, Fred.