Doctor time

Many of the nice doctor folks have changed the time they’re asking you to come for an appointment.  Instead of asking you to come in fifteen minutes early they’re now asking you to come in twenty minutes early.

There’s some paperwork and a co-pay, or a credit check, or the bartering of your car, or the surrender of one of your children, so it seems a certain amount of early time is required, but twenty minutes?

Okay, okay, it might take twenty minutes to sign away one of your kids, but that rarely happens, right?

Nothing’s changed of course.  You still check in and wait in the waiting room.  The nurse can’t take you into an exam room because there isn’t one available or the doctor isn’t able to see you yet.

That’s okay.  You’re early, right?

So, you sit waiting, along with ten or twenty other people, sharing germs via coughs and sneezes, touching stuff and generally breathing each other’s air.

Ten or twenty minutes later someone calls your name and you’re ushered back to an exam room where you’ll wait another ten or twenty minutes for the doctor.

That’s okay, too.  I guess.  There’s interesting stuff to look at and read on the walls of course: What your urinary tract looks like, your arteries and veins, what part of your brain explodes when you go nuts waiting, your testicles, all kinds of interesting stuff.

Eventually the doctor comes in.

He or she is usually smiling, but clearly overworked.  There’s a pleasant greeting and he or she buries his or her face in the computer.

Once he or she has you “up” on screen the business of doctoring can commence.

If you glance at your watch you’ll notice that your one o’clock appointment started at roughly one thirty-five.

That’s okay.  It’s doctor time.