Doctor Delay

            Yesterday, I went with a friend to her doctor’s appointment in Monroeville. It was her first visit to the doctor and to the facility, so we were unsure of exactly where on the campus that she was supposed to be. She was told to arrive fifteen minutes early and was concerned that we wouldn’t be there in time. Her appointment time was eleven a.m. and we just made it inside the waiting area at eleven. By the time she gave the receptionist all of the information, it was twenty minutes later. She sat beside me to finish her medical history form.

            She needn’t have worried. The doctor was running late. He was detained in surgery, either by an emergency or a more complicated case than he thought. The small waiting area became crowded and restless. I wrote a few things on my pad that I carry, but soon that became tiring and I began to talk to others around me. The gentleman and his wife who sat closest were from Monroeville, Pennsylvania and had a business selling items to gift shops. As we talked I mentioned I was a writer and author, giving him my business card. He noticed that I had a BlogSpot and began to read some of my entries. When I told him that I’d written three books, he asked and I wrote their titles on the back of the card.

            Once they were called in to see the physician, I began to chat with others. An older woman worked at a business located in Scottdale, Pennsylvania. Another group of women drove from Somerset, Pennsylvania, and a younger man drove from Ohio.

            A woman and her niece who had surgery and Muscular Dystrophy entered and sat beside of us. As we talked, the niece was a nurse as I was. I found that the aunt was being treated by a physician with whom I worked at Frick Hospital many years age. He worked the emergency department there, but had since struck out on his own as an acupuncturist. I gave her two of my cards and asked her to give the doctor one at her next visit.

            Soon, the patients in the waiting area thinned and by one p.m. my friend made her way into the physician. When she came back, she had some good news. She wouldn’t need surgery, but that also carried some bad news. There was no immediate relief from her back pain. She would need to try something else.

            By the time we left the office, I had depleted all of my business cards, and hope that I gained a few more readers.