I recently went for some of my "annual" medical checkups. One of them was the first in 3 or 6 years, the other was a first-ever. (OK, so I'm not so good with the doctor visits.)
The first-ever visit was a long-overdue trip to get all my moles checked out, something I probably should have started doing when I was 18 since I'm pretty much in the highest of high-risk groups. When I filled out the patient intake form, the second page somewhat surprisingly asked me to identify my Spouse / Parent. Surely, in an ideal world, one might have both? But I've been on enough church field trips to recognize a next-of-kin notification form when I see one, so I dutifully filled out my mom's name and phone number. I was going to put my dad's name too, but I reckoned that the same number works for both and if anyone ever had to call, they'd probably figure things out one way or another.
During the body scan (which was a lot less high-tech than I was imagining), the doctor decided to take a core sample from a birth mark on my scalp. This was going to require a few tiny stitches, which would need to be taken out later, and he asked if my partner was squeamish. Slightly puzzled, but figuring that he must have simply assumed that someone my age would be partnered one way or another, I explained that I live alone. A brief discussion revealed what you, gentle reader, have doubtless grasped right away: I had totally misread the form.
2 comments:
I'm just astonished that someone actually took in some of the info on one of those forms. It's the first evidence I've had that they're ever looked at.
This is actually the second doctor I've encountered who reacted to something from the patient intake forms. Although in this particular case, it was part of an overall favorable impression.
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