My Dream is No More Waiting

A side effect of health issues is a lot of time spent waiting.

I have a dream. Not exactly a dream. An idea I came up with a few minutes ago. Still, pretty good idea.

What if follow-ups to medical tests happened immediately? Here is the scenario:

The patient says, “Hi, Doctor. Those are my test results?”

The doctor looks serious but not too serious as he replies, “Yes. Something small came back. We aren’t sure it is a problem, but it requires more testing.”

“Oh? When can we…”

“Linda, my nurse, is going to take you down the hall. Al is going to take care of the additional tests and I will talk with you after. Sound good?”

“Oh, yes.” Not having time to worry about what it all means, you walk down the hall with Linda.

Linda introduces you to Al. Al is the artificial intelligence that runs the lab equipment. It looks like something out of Alien: Covenant.

Al says hello. It sounds a little like HAL in 2001: Space Odyssey but you don’t focus on that. Linda helps you climb into the scanner.

When it is all done, Al wishes you a good day and Linda walks you back to the examination room. Your doctor joins you (no unnecessary waiting in this fantasy) and gives you the results.

It is possible I read too much science fiction.

Currently, my calendar is filled with doctor and physical therapy appointments.

Six. The number of separate, individual health issues my body has decided to pile on.

Four. The number of those issues that involve pain but will never be life-threatening.

Have you done the math? It isn’t hard. That leaves two issues that are troubling.

They are going to turn out to be nothing. I am, let’s say, ninety percent sure of it. That last ten percent, though.

Do you know what would eliminate that ten percent? Not waiting. We wait for tests, then for our doctor’s office to tell us the results. If it is bad news, then we wait for another doctor appointment to discover our options.

That’s a lot of waiting. I haven’t even gotten into the waiting we do in doctor’s offices, in labs, and in physical therapy lobbies.

I asked the doctor I see about my knee to give an opinion on my elbow. He told me about a patient who also had tennis elbow. It was a mystery how the woman acquired it until he saw her knitting in his waiting room. The penny dropped. I am a hand quilter.

My take away was to avoid hand quilting in waiting rooms. Of course, playing a game or reading Medium stories on my phone instead doesn’t keep carpal tunnel away.

Waiting is clearly the problem. Without all this excessive waiting, maybe we would never be ill. Did the doctors ever think about that?

My cat Xander thinks there is something off about my logic. He is judging me.

I will just sit quietly and wait for his vet’s office to call me back. He has an appointment I am trying to set up, too.

If you liked this, you might like: