Generally, the whole experience is fine. Ever since I've been let into the adult world, left to sort out every facet of my own life, I've been pretty good about going to the Doctors should there are anything concerning. It helped that the health centre was on the same road I lived. Also every single Doctor I've seen has been incredibly nice and very helpful. I have a shedload of respect for those guys.
It's not as though all my visits to the Doctor have been a walk in the park. Most haven't been for anything major, but one time I got packed off to the hospital in a non-urgent ambulance, to sit in a fair amount of discomfort for four hours, then to get gowned up, x-rayed and generally sat in various hard plastic chairs clutching my possessions in a plastic bag in between. I'd had shoulder and lung pain, and a slightly fast heartbeat had been concerning enough for the nurse to send me to the hospital. Eventually it turned out to be pleurisy. (That link makes it sound terrifying. Mine was only a tiny case, seemingly coming on after a normal cold). And despite never having been in a hospital for my own reasons, and having left the house six hours earlier with no clue that this is where I was going to end up, I was serene throughout. If anything bad was going to happen, I was in the best ruddy place.
(And a four hour wait to then been seen by doctors, have an x-ray, get a nurse checking on me while I wait and giving painkillers should I be too uncomfortable and generally finding out what's wrong, all for free -- as it were? I'd do that wait any day. Maybe there are a few problems overall, but the NHS is a bloody marvellous thing.)
And today I was stabbed with a needle, had a part of my skin scraped off and then cauterised. Heard my own skin sizzling and everything. Jolly good fun!
So they haven't all been a delight. But visiting the Doctors is nice. Even if I'm going for something completely ordinary. It feels like I've been given a extra few months of clear, excellent health. Because if I were dying of something, especially slow and wasteful, the doctor would be able to tell as soon as I walked in. That's how it works, right?
Annnnyway. The Thing.
There should be a convention that states that doctors should say at the end "That's the end of the session. Thanks". Because otherwise I sit there like a lemon, wondering if they're about to tell me more. And they sit there looking at me, no doubt thinking I'm about to say something. Eventually I make an awkward "so...uh...thanks! That's really great! Thanks! Bye!" and shuffle out of the door, half-expecting them to shout after me "Where are you going, we're not done! There's still a needle in your arm!"
It seems to happen every time. Even with the super friendly doctors, there's always that awkward pause at the end. So if we had some kind of firm, final sentence, it would makes things a lot better.
Otherwise I'm going to fill the silence with increasingly inane things. Until finally I blurt out "I love you!" or some such.
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