I got thrown off my sassy horse

This morning I made the pilgrimage to MCV for the purpose of being a patient myself. A new patient actually, with all the paperwork and questions that go along with it. I arrived 15 minutes early as requested. I brought my id and insurance card. I signed HIPAA forms and turned off my cell phone. And then waited 40 minutes. GRR! I had made an early morning appointment for the purpose of avoiding waiting! I HATE waiting. Especially for the OB-GYN, every woman's favorite place to be.

40 minutes past my appointment time I was ushered back for the weigh-in and blood pressure check. My blood pressure was higher than normal. Inside, I was seething. All of these self righteous statements kept flying through my head. "I took off WORK to be here!" and "I have a very important job!" I was made to wait more in the blood pressure room, as an examination room had yet to be vacated. 50 minutes later the nurse, who I deemed at that time to be oh so nonchalant, took me to the examination room. Ugh, I was so pissed and completely unwilling to give away benefits of the doubt. So in my best haughty voice I inquired if 50 minutes is a usual and expected wait time for this clinic. The nurse told me my physician was late and thus everything is late this morning. RAARR! I was not appeased. I told her I didn't feel 50 minutes past the appointment time was acceptable (as if she had anything to do with it) and was mentally noting to call someone's supervisor. I'm never that guy! I don't write the angry letters! I'm usually the laid back, go-with-the-flow kind of person unless there's a greivous error, or obvious disrespect that's going on. Neither applied in this case. It occurred to me that dignity was not going to be preserved with hospital gowns ("leave it open in the front") or stirrups being involved, and so I might as well suck it up. I tried to convince myself of the meaningless of losing an additional hour of my day, but then the self righteous voice was just SO intrusive and....then the door opened and a British voice called out my name.

"Yes?" I replied. "How long have you had to wait?" the British voice asked me.
"A long time," I stated. Surprised. Who was this seeming voice of reason?

Dr. Rickell then appeared from behind a curtain and she went right into an apology, saying that she had a baby in the middle of the night (I later realized she's a midwife and DELIVERED a baby, after staring at her easily 60 year old face for about 8 seconds) and overslept this morning. Reasonable enough. We moved on. I liked her style. I liked her directness. We talked about attachment and my dissertation, we talked about VTCC, and birth control. It actually turned out to be a fun morning, all things considered. I told her how much I enjoyed meeting her as a mea culpa for my initial haughtiness. I felt like such an asshole.

Anyway, the day moved on. I went to a consultation and liaison meeting, and saw my patients this afternoon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the adolescent girls will be in their soccer group again today at 3:00, so I can go cheer. There's nothing more rewarding about this job than seeing them all having so much fun, while exercising and doing normal teenage things. After work, I am headed straight to Kitchen 64 for dinner with my friend Jen and then we are off to a wine tasting at the Ginter Botanical Gardens that are in and around downtown.