Times Have Changed . . .

Going to the doctor has really changed a lot from the days when I was a child. There are some things that are not any better than they were in the "good old days," but overall, things are much better.

I grew up in a very small town, and there were four family physicians that I could remember. Our doctor was a very kind, soft spoken man who moonlighted as an Independent Baptist Preacher.

You were encouraged to make an appointment but could call in, for emergencies, to see if you could be fit in at our family doctor's office. As you walked into the waiting room, there was a wall facing the door. If you turned to the right you went into one waiting room, and if you turned to the left you went into another one. They both had access to the front desk but a wall separated the two rooms. There were no signs, but it didn't take long to notice that they were racially segregated. That was where I was first exposed to segregation.

The segregated waiting room is a thing of the past in this country. That is one of the good changes that have been made in our medical communities. I'm glad because we are all created equal in God's side and no matter the color of your skin, we all bleed red.

This morning I took Rachel to see the doctor. Instead of going to her pediatrician, I took her to see another doctor that we like. He runs a clinic that takes walk-ins. That can be good and bad. You don't have to have an appointment, but there is no guarantee on how long you will wait to see a doctor. Today was no exception.

We walked in, signed in, and sat down. I brought some paperwork to keep me busy, but Rachel didn't feel like doing anything. The next step is to wait for your name to be called to the registrar’s window so that you can pay. Well, we waited and waited, and I became a little concerned when people, who had come in after we had, were being called to pay. I decided to check and see if we were in line and was assure that we were.

After having waiting around 45 minutes, Rachel's name was called. I told her to sit still because they just needed our co-pay. When I walked around the corner, the nurse was waiting. I told her that we hadn't paid yet, and she said something that nearly caused me to pass out. "You have a credit!" Wow!!! That has never happened to me before.

Rachel was taken to the nurse’s room where she was weighed, temperature taken (electronically), blood pressure (the old way) and then grilled. The sad thing was Rachel had to do that I never had to do when I was her age - sign a paper stating that she was not pregnant. She's 13 years old!!! How sad and shocking to me, but I guess it is just a commentary of our times.

From seeing the nurse, we were escorted to another waiting room where we waited for our name to be called for cultures. Here was another first for me. They did a nose swab!! I asked the nurse the purpose of it, and she stated it was for the flu. We then went back to the second waiting room and waited to be called for a regular examination room.

Fortunately we did not have to wait too long and were taken to the room. The cultures taken for the flu and strep throat both came back negative, but the doctor said Rachel had all the symptoms of strep and would be treated as such. He asked her if she wanted a shot which she quickly replied with a sore throat, "NO!" He then asked her if she wanted to get well quicker, and she replied "yes." She didn't realize that she'd just given him permission to give her an injection.

Rachel was not a happy camper when the nurse came in with the needle. The nurse made a mistake by not having Rachel lie down on the examination table. Immediately after the shot, I knew that Rachel was in trouble. I was hugging her to keep her mind occupied when she became dead weight. The nurse helped me get Rachel to the floor and proceeded to get her to come around. After a while she was able to stand, but as we were leaving, she passed out again. We finally got out of the doctors office and home!!

Even with the waiting, I'm so thankful for the doctors we have and the medicines we can take to get better. We are blessed!!!