No matter how much you like your doctor, all doctor visits are the same.
Let’s face it, doctors wouldn’t put magazines in waiting rooms if they didn’t plan in advance to keep you twiddling your thumbs well past your scheduled appointment time.
Some have sat in limbo for so long they might have expired before being seen.
And while it seems like you could die from boredom, the vast majority of us don’t.
Just when you’ve given up hope and assume you’ve been forgotten, your name is called. In a sudden burst of energy, you rush past the other patients with the same enthusiasm you might have if you were Bob Barker’s latest guest, silently satisfied that you were chosen.
Just like “The Price is Right,” you get to play fun little guessing games — the first is “What weight am I today?” where you are forced to step onto a scale.
It’s not like being at home where you can strip down to see what you really weigh. No, this particular punishment rewards you with 10 extra pounds just from your jeans alone, not to mention the heavy boots you mistakenly wore that day.
Then you are ushered into the exam room with the false hope that it indicates you’ll soon be seen.
Nope.
This is like the medical field’s version of purgatory — you’re trapped in an in-between state.
They get you that way by telling you to slip out of your pants and sweater, opting instead for the always flattering paper gown that has a few thumb hole rips in it by the time you get it on.
Now you can’t leave the exam room to ask how long it will be because of the paper clothing situation and the magazines are waiting room rejects.
After what seems like hours of waiting, the doctor knocks on the door and asks if you are ready to be seen, as though you were the one causing the delay.
Of course, the visit itself takes only five minutes, which is hardly enough time to explain that in addition to the sore throat that brought you to the doctor’s in the first place, you’ve now developed bedsores from sitting in the same place for so long.
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