THE GREAT WAIT

Going to the doctor can be a somewhat irksome, nerve wracking experience for me.

  It can be an intimidating, draining experience, considering the long wait periods and barrage of information.
As it appears, the more miles in life, the more health annoyances.
An unfortunate event forced me to visit Urgent Care twice in one month after not being able to schedule with either of my two doctors.
Now don't get me wrong as I am not venting or complaining but found it strange to be in a predicament beyond my control and told that my advancement in age is highly related to other ailments.
Just being grateful for the service they provide and alleviate some of the intense pain I had endured in my right ear this past month.
  The unfortunate thing is that neither Urgent Care yielded the proper diagnoses.
 And that is how I finally found myself in this waiting room, with a third doctor and a subsequent follow-up visit.
  This is the staging area where the medical process begins and what happens in the waiting room.  If you are lucky, you get to choose your seat, your seated on a thinly padded chair that sinks in the middle where everyone before you has sat.
Long waits invariably are not avoidable.  Not only is waiting tedious, but sitting in a room surrounded by a full spectrum of emotion, ranging from numbing boredom to anxiety amongst silent strangers is not my idea of a party.  The room is devoid of any interesting reading material as the usual vintage issues of magazines have long since disappeared.
 Occasionally there are moments of eccentricities when something totally unexpected happens.

The receptionist, bothered by our appearance of boredom came out to turn on the TV, surfing the Netflix collection of movies, settling on Disney's Tinker Bell and The Legend of the Never Beast an animated film about domesticating a fearsome cat creature.  The TV is mounted on the wall opposite.
  She disappeared again behind the counter.  Unbelievable!  There were no children in the room and average age was 50 or over, this was the otolaryngologists or ENT for short (ear, nose, and throat) doctors office.
And, we all know that the cell phone audio is not as quiet as you think as you sit three feet away and hear more than you care to even when they prefer you not using them in the reception area at all.
My partner next to me dozes off as a lady several seats down whips out her journal and quietly begins to write.  Now why did I not bring mine.

  When it comes time to write my thoughts that pop into my head, documenting my time and observations, what an ideal place to jot those observations or random thoughts.  Yes, there will be other opportunities.

Let's face it, doctors visits take up a lot of time and it is not fun sitting in congested waiting rooms.  I wonder what part of the word "appointment" do they not get.  They expect you to be on time or early, appointment time comes and goes and of course I'm still waiting.  They should offer free WiFi if the wait is more than 20 minutes.
Time goes by, I approach the receptionist  asking what happened to my appointment.  She glances at her monitor and gives an excuse.  After some time, I again approach the receptionist and ask what the status is.  She replies, "Your next". 

Thirty minutes later I am ushered into another smaller "waiting" room, to wait.  Victory at last maybe.  Well, not quite.  The nurse leaves you and you end up staring at the posters on the opposite wall after telling you, the doctor will be with you "shortly".  You think, your almost there.  A few minutes later the doctor steps in, after five minutes, you are sent on your way.