Do not touch

 

comes in three colors

You are waiting in a Dr.'s consulting room, surrounded by posters of body parts. There are interesting brochures about diabetes, prostrate exams, and flu shots. Generic muted watercolor paintings hang somewhere. You have a cell phone to use with no restrictions.  Candy Crush is delightful. Time will pass.

Oh, but find yourself in a specialist's room. 

My last appointment with my neurologist showed me a huge difference.  Gray-ish walls in a barren room, with no visual stimulation at all, suffocation drops heavily.  No cell phone usage, either.  Too many electronic machines, absolutely important machines.  No clock, time will seize up. 

There is an implicit message: 

Do Not Touch. Interesting canisters, holding interesting stuff, cabinets are locked: Do not touch.

                     These are activities I have used:  

 Tap dancing: sit on that plastic chair and make your feet fly.  Fix a song in your head and have at it.  Tusk from the album, Tusk by Fleetwood Mac is a favorite. Be original. Go with  it.

Make sure to not touch any paper covered space on that rolling cart, staff gets ready pissy about that. Instead, roll that cart (which is holding a few instruments) around the room.  Slowly, of course, but you could make several passes in five minutes. Don't touch the paper.

That rolling stool?  That thing is fast, amazingly fast. It swivels rapidly, so you have to be careful with that one.  Be sure to lift your feet up, so you don’t get tangled up with the rollers. Don't touch any paper, even casually .

Pretend to use that grey and hard table to play an imaginary drum.  Avoid the paper.  This is good for arm muscles.  Be sure to drum with convincing force.

Search for studs in the wall.  Odd, but trying to hang pictures in plaster board often leaves a row of nail holes. Stud finding is an art. There is no danger of paper-touching.

I can’t think of anything else, as the doctor entered gray prison room when I was still checking for studs.  I had found one possible stud, but lacking a hammer and nail, this could not be confirmed.

                                                                 YouTube, about 2 minutes long

Good luck.

This is a re-post of 2016. Nothing changes. Dr. office is the same, right down to the prints on the wall, but those are fading into a blue as is often in cheap prints. My next appointment is next month.

Things to Do in a Doctor's Consulting Room

comes in three colors

You are waiting in a Dr.'s consulting room, surrounded by posters of body parts. There are interesting brochures about diabetes, prostrate exams, and flu shots. Generic muted watercolor paintings hang somewhere. You have a cell phone to use with no restrictions.  Candy Crush is delightful. Time will pass.

Oh, but find yourself in a specialist's room. 

My last appointment with my neurologist showed me a huge difference.  Gray-ish walls in a barren room, with no visual stimulation at all, suffocation drops heavily.  No cell phone usage, either.  Too many electronic machines, absolutely important machines.  No clock, time will seize up.

There is an implicit message: Do Not Touch. Interesting canisters, holding interesting stuff, cabinets are locked: Do not touch.

                     These are activities I have used:  

 

Tap dancing, sit on that plastic chair and make your feet fly.  Fix a song in your head and have at it.  Tusk from the album, Tusk by Fleetwood Mac is a favorite. Be original. Go with  it.

Make sure to not touch any paper covered space on that rolling cart, staff gets ready pissy about that. Instead, roll that cart (which is holding a few instruments) around the room.  Slowly, of course, but you could make several passes in five minutes. Don't touch the paper.

That rolling stool?  That thing is fast, amazingly fast. It swivels rapidly, so you have to be careful with that one.  Be sure to lift your feet up, so you don’t get tangled up with the rollers. Don't touch any paper, even casually .

Pretend to use that grey and hard table to play an imaginary drum.  Avoid the paper.  This is good for arm muscles.  Be sure to drum with convincing force.

Search for studs in the wall.  Odd, but trying to hang pictures in plaster board often leaves a row of nail holes. Stud finding is an art. There is no danger of paper-touching.

I can’t think of anything else, as the doctor entered gray prison room when I was still checking for studs.  I had found one possible stud, but lacking a hammer and nail, this could not be confirmed.

Good luck.

source

Another Day at the Doctor Office

Another day at the Doctor’s office, another slice of humanity.  Another day for observing the great lives that pass through the door.

Awkwardness melted away as the chairs filled up.  Patients were forced to sit next to a stranger.  And then, one person leaned over to the next and said something.  It didn’t matter what, because the forbidden veil had been torn.  People started interacting, sharing, making eye contact.

Different races, ages, experiences, and life choices poured out in a flood.  Vietnam vet was next to long distance trucker.  An elderly woman sat next to twenty-something woman.  A bicyclist with torn ACL (or ALC) talked to the sixty-something man who sported a graying ponytail and a Padres baseball cap. 

Everyone was there to see the doctor for some reason involving pain or illness.  Some were clearly in wrenching pain, but relating the events of the accidents helped them endure the waiting.

What was I doing, you may ask.  I was the one who leaned over to the person next to me, and started it all.  After that, my journal was open as I wrote, interspersed with conversation.

Just needed to get the ball rolling.