My day out

(Well about half an hour).

Today I went to the doctor’s, which was very exciting. Well, not really. I had to see another doctor as my GP is away for a fortnight (having had six weeks off between November and December, but he is a nice chap so I don’t mind too much). This new doctor today was incredible. I have never held a ten minute conversation with someone in the same room as me without making eye-contact once, let alone a doctor. Most of the time I was talking, i.e describing my new and unusual health problem, she was tapping merrily away on her computer, presumably looking at my notes and making new ones. I know I am being over-sensitive about this, but some of the stuff I was telling her was pretty sensitive. She said I was extremely pale (whatever that may imply) and I almost asked, “How would you know? You haven’t looked at me yet.”

Finally I got sent for blood tests and these were really cool as they’ve got news sorts of syringes. I had a period a few years ago when I had about a dozen blood tests within the space of a few months and I grew to dread these things; every time it seemed to hurt more - not a scratch not a prick but a stab in the arm sometimes - and I was growing increasingly squeamish. But this one was painless. I mean really. I could have just been lucky, but now they’re extracting blood in a different way. The viles contain a vacuum, so all that happens is the nurse sticks a needle in (the needle with a plastic cone thing to hold onto) and attaches the vile to the needle. And the vile sucks your blood out; no pushing and pulling and the nurse no longer risks contact with the blood. And you can detach and reattach the viles one by one until you’ve got all the samples you need (and I’m even paler than I was when the doctor saw me).

Sorry, this stuff fascinates me; new ways of doing stuff. And frankly, this was the highlight of my day which I have otherwise spent (a) asleep or (b) half asleep. Oh and there was a nun in the waiting room, tapping her foot along to Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygene, which is not something you see every day. I guess Oxygene was an appropriate tune to play in the doctor's waiting room. The next track was the Harry Lime Theme (the balalaika music from The Third Man). Odd kind of compilation.