I Say Doctor! Let Me Get This Straight
Posted by Rey
At ten o’clock I was laying back, exhausted from lack of sleep, trying to get comfortable in a hospital chair that functioned as an equally uncomfortable bed. Cradled in my left arm was my re-hydrated daughter, I.V. still attached to her hand but exhausted from being up most of the night and finally meeting dawn with a flurry of nurses and needles.On my far left, in the second transforming chair, was my 6 month pregnant wife who likely had less sleep than I did since the slightest creak keeps her awake and hospitals never sleep. We were waiting to hear if my daughter would be released that afternoon or if she would stay another night.
In came the Doctor, crew-cut, glasses being tall—but honestly at that hazy part of the day not many of the details are extremely striking. For instance I can’t really remember his name. The nurse right behind him though was one of the experienced and kind-hearted souls we met last night (in direct contradiction to the E.R. circus).
“I’m Doctor John and am an assistant to Doctor Peter who you met with last night. I looked at the labs and it looks like your Daughter’s Blood Sugar is still a bit low—Can Anyone Speak ENGLISH here?”
“What?” I growled as my eyes slung curses and knives, “We both do!” The nurse over his shoulder lowered her eyes in embarrassment. My wife glared at the man and he merely stammered an unconvincing “oh” once and proceeded to give his unheard report.
Minutes later my wife and I pored over the exchange and realized some important facts: he had read the name Reynoso on the chart, saw a bedragled family of three with one on the way (since my son wasn’t around, he didn’t have that detail to add to his thinking) and came to this conclusion: we were non-English speaking immigrants.
Nothing like a splash of prejudice to wake you up in the morning, eh?
8 Responses to “I Say Doctor! Let Me Get This Straight”
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April 23rd, 2007 at 12:19 am
You shoud have said “We both do!” followed by a Ricky Ricardo rant with your wife. It would have been even better if you ended with “Stupido!”
ROFL… why did you want to move to a hick town again?
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:46 am
You were wearing your straw hat and full-on Juan Valdez gear complete with Burro again, weren’t you?
So amid your (justified) rant, I think I missed a detail or two. Why was your daughter in the hospital? Other than an idiot doctor, is everything ok now? :/
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:50 am
What an ignoramus. Sorry you had to deal with that on top of everything else.
I’m wondering along with MCF how your daughter is doing. Hope that everyone is home and getting some well-deserved rest.
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Oh she had vomitting and diarrea for a few days with a fever and constant refusal on all fluids to the point that she got severely dehydrated. After the vomitting and all stopped she still wouldn’t drink so we had to get her re-hydrated via IV. Now she is happy and drinking and working on solids again.
The Flu stinks.
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Oh great… now I look like an incompassionate schmuck. I too hope that you are all doing well.
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Bah–it’s the main reason why I told the story this way instead of a long MCFish post about nurses, doctors, and childhood trauma.
July 7th, 2007 at 9:16 am
“why did you want to move to a hick town again”
Seems the prejudice is contagious.
July 7th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
JSP: Awesome. LOL!