The door is halfway open to the hallway. I can see well from my little examination room as a Dr wheels his touch screen up to my room, but before entering it he taps some icon and a song comes on from the overhead speakers. He's pleased and turns it up more by sliding his finger up. Pushing his touch screen in he introduces himself, “I'm Dr SuchnSuch!”
I then say to him because I immediately recognized the guitar solo, “You like David Gilmour??
He stares at me for a second...”You KNOW who he is?”
“Yeah, that's “Poles Apart” from the Division Bell you're playing now.” It's a song where Gilmour tries to patch up the past he had with Syd Barrett and Roger Waters.
He again stares...”How...? None of my patients know of this..you're the first to make any mention of it. I play it all the time.”
We then kill 15 minutes speaking of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters and comparing concerts we've seen, before we get to the task at hand, checking me out.
The tests come back, “Yup, didn't really have to do them but wanted to confirm what I thought. You have lobar pneumonia, lower right lobe, could hear it on the stethoscope. It's pretty common...it can last days or weeks, depending on who you are and in your case, you were probably walking around with it for a week w/o knowing it til the last days it kicked in.”
I think, “Great...same damn thing my Dad would get, again and again,” but he hated Dr's and never would see one. Last time he got the big P, it took him out.
“Go to CVS, get these meds and it'll be gone in a day or two.”
Then...
He's following me through the maze in the office space speaking of other Pink Floyd stories he had. The other patients waiting are sort of looking at us, hearing us speak of things NOT medical. At the entrance, he says...”Kudos for knowing 'Poles Apart!' You certainly surprised me on a Saturday.”
The only other Dr story I have was when my brother was in RI Hospital and his Dr had paperwork for me to sign so they could do surgery on him.
“Oh, There's Dr Adair now, she'll take your papers”
I turn around and see this little girl scout in a white lab coat emblazoned with RI Hospital/Brown U emblem. She looks 17. I almost say, “You're a Dr...really?” I didn't but was stunned at how young she looked. It then reminded me that I was above the median age for Americans..way above it. The chances of me running into anyone older than me were getting shorter and shorter. It looks like most I meet are younger than me. Well of course they are....statistics back it up. But damn, she looked like jailbait. And apparently she was the one who did the laparoscopic surgery on my brother. Sigh...this little girl has far more talent, degrees and money than I will ever see.
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