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Jan. 23rd, 2026 05:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressI went to the doctor today! Well, yesterday, by the time I'm getting around to posting this. It was my regular yearly checkup, only my usual doc had no availability, so I nabbed an appointment with another doctor in the practice. Neither she nor I actually paid particular attention to the name on the computer screen, which meant it was a charming surprise when she walked into the room, we looked at each other, and we mutually went "......oh!" as we recognized someone who lives in the other half of our duplex.
(She kindly offered to not do the appointment if that would make me feel more comfortable, but honestly, I am very lucky in that I trust most doctors to be competent and trustworthy, and also knowing that my doc is queer is a Good Thing in terms of stuff like talking frankly about various queernesses of my own.)
Appointment was pretty normal, with two bits of unusual. The first was her listening to my heart, and declaring that there was a slight irregularity that she could detect, and have I ever had an EKG? I have not, and my mom was spending bunches of time in AFIB before her heart surgery, so it was prudent to wheel in the little cart and give that a go. Whatever was going on was mostly irreproducible --it took several tries on the EKG machine to get it to verify that she'd actually heard something. Luckily it finally did (that is less spooky!) and it has been declared "oh yeah, hearts just kinda do that sometimes". We'll keep a long-term eye on it, and I should definitely pay attention to like, am I getting suddenly winded or whatever, but it's fine.
She also declared that there was a buildup of wax in one of my ears. Normal, it happens sometimes, they can clean it out for me using the weird sprayer if I'd like. I was warned several times by both her and the nurse that it might make me feel dizzy and I should totally ask to stop if needed.
Getting my ear sprayed full of water (and anti-wax solution?) didn't make me dizzy at all, but it felt *extremely* weird. It also made a huge mess, I don't know if the water-catching-cup they had me hold to my head wasn't the right shape for my body or what, but they had to grab me a second gown to sorta hold in my lap and use to sop up the liquid. I did like the part a moment after the spraying stopped, where I could feel everything crackling. And it appeared to work? So that's good.
After, I was contemplating the way that I find medical practice absolutely fascinating. I'm very lucky to be pretty easy-going about doctor's appointments, considering how many people do not have that luxury. Some of that is my privileges in being fairly able bodied (I can state "I don't wish to be weighed" and have always had that respected because I look thin and healthy), and some of it is probably my dubious childhood as a doctor's kid.
Alsoalso I got my covid booster finally, which I should've done much earlier this season, but the timing just didn't line up with when I got my flu vaxx, and then I just wasn't thinking about it enough. Thank you YTS for giving me the kick in the pants of having it back on my radar. Glad I'll be covered for them now. Not glad that my arm hurts.
When I went to get my blood drawn for the annual STI screening, I had the _coolest fuckin' phlebotomist_ I've ever seen. She had a neat super-bumpy manicure going on, and then I was able to ask "can I ask a nosy question" and she was thrilled to fill me in on her "smiley piercing", a body mod I'd never seen before. I especially loved her enthusiasm in telling me that she did all her own piercings, because honestly, yeah, you stick needles in people for a living, might as well stick 'em in yourself too!
So it was a good appointment overall and now I don't have to go to the doctor again until July. Huzzah!
~Sor
MOOP!
(She kindly offered to not do the appointment if that would make me feel more comfortable, but honestly, I am very lucky in that I trust most doctors to be competent and trustworthy, and also knowing that my doc is queer is a Good Thing in terms of stuff like talking frankly about various queernesses of my own.)
Appointment was pretty normal, with two bits of unusual. The first was her listening to my heart, and declaring that there was a slight irregularity that she could detect, and have I ever had an EKG? I have not, and my mom was spending bunches of time in AFIB before her heart surgery, so it was prudent to wheel in the little cart and give that a go. Whatever was going on was mostly irreproducible --it took several tries on the EKG machine to get it to verify that she'd actually heard something. Luckily it finally did (that is less spooky!) and it has been declared "oh yeah, hearts just kinda do that sometimes". We'll keep a long-term eye on it, and I should definitely pay attention to like, am I getting suddenly winded or whatever, but it's fine.
She also declared that there was a buildup of wax in one of my ears. Normal, it happens sometimes, they can clean it out for me using the weird sprayer if I'd like. I was warned several times by both her and the nurse that it might make me feel dizzy and I should totally ask to stop if needed.
Getting my ear sprayed full of water (and anti-wax solution?) didn't make me dizzy at all, but it felt *extremely* weird. It also made a huge mess, I don't know if the water-catching-cup they had me hold to my head wasn't the right shape for my body or what, but they had to grab me a second gown to sorta hold in my lap and use to sop up the liquid. I did like the part a moment after the spraying stopped, where I could feel everything crackling. And it appeared to work? So that's good.
After, I was contemplating the way that I find medical practice absolutely fascinating. I'm very lucky to be pretty easy-going about doctor's appointments, considering how many people do not have that luxury. Some of that is my privileges in being fairly able bodied (I can state "I don't wish to be weighed" and have always had that respected because I look thin and healthy), and some of it is probably my dubious childhood as a doctor's kid.
Alsoalso I got my covid booster finally, which I should've done much earlier this season, but the timing just didn't line up with when I got my flu vaxx, and then I just wasn't thinking about it enough. Thank you YTS for giving me the kick in the pants of having it back on my radar. Glad I'll be covered for them now. Not glad that my arm hurts.
When I went to get my blood drawn for the annual STI screening, I had the _coolest fuckin' phlebotomist_ I've ever seen. She had a neat super-bumpy manicure going on, and then I was able to ask "can I ask a nosy question" and she was thrilled to fill me in on her "smiley piercing", a body mod I'd never seen before. I especially loved her enthusiasm in telling me that she did all her own piercings, because honestly, yeah, you stick needles in people for a living, might as well stick 'em in yourself too!
So it was a good appointment overall and now I don't have to go to the doctor again until July. Huzzah!
~Sor
MOOP!
no subject
on 2026-01-23 11:57 am (UTC)no subject
on 2026-01-23 12:20 pm (UTC)I once had the ear wax thing, and it is a mess. I also like how it might have been the same thing people have been doing for ages as a remedy. In the same way, I was interested to see
I also like that with all the high-tech saliva extractors and stuff at the dentist, they still stuff cotton rolls into my mouth as well, a memory from my long-gone childhood.
When I was learning about medical stuff, the rule was supposed to be that health care professionals kept their nails short and unadorned, for fear of germs. I looked up the guidance recently, and it has gotten less strict, but I think adhesions/acrylics are still not supposed to be approved. Of course your phlebotomist had gloves on while touching you. (right? I'm suddenly feeling like meme Padme Amidala).
no subject
on 2026-01-23 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2026-01-23 02:53 pm (UTC)I've had this done multiple times, and it has never been anything other than a huge mess. The least-messy time, they'd had me lie down for the process, but that is both less effective and means the smaller mess risks becoming "mess in the hair". :P
(I also seem to have one sensitive ear canal/drum? In one ear, the irrigation process is weird and not entirely pleasant but basically acceptable. In the other, it's just shy of excruciating. As a result, I haven't had it done at the doctor for... something over a decade?... because I'd rather just do it myself in the shower - drugstores sell specialized squirty-syringes for the purpose that jet on a diagonal instead of straight at the eardrum, and having *me* in control of the horrible thing is vastly better than it being something Done To Me.)
no subject
on 2026-01-24 12:10 am (UTC)(I get a lot of impacted ear wax, so these have been a big help.)
no subject
on 2026-01-24 12:23 am (UTC)I learned about smiley piercings in reading this (and then Googling). But they kind of make sense to me. Like, if you can clip a labial frenulum with no ill effects, of course you can also pierce it!