Percopotomus submission #7 non prompt

 Yesterday I went to the doctor for my annual sinus/pseudo asthma/ear/chest infection thing I get every spring. Normally it arrives in time to screw up my voice and/or flute playing during Holy Week. I blame the abnormally warm winter we’ve had for putting me in this state sooner than usual, but these appointments have been fairly predictable for the past few years. I was expecting my usual conversation about asthma and smoking with my doctor, followed by a prescription but I wasn’t really thinking anything weird would happen.

      The assistant called me back and did the requisite height and weight check which seem so mundane it should be pointless to write about them. My weight is pretty good; I’ve gained a couple of pounds over the winter, but I’m still five pounds less than last summer, so I feel like that’s a good thing. My height has been 5’2 ½” since I was 12, so needless to say when I was told I’m now 5’2 ¼” tall, that was unnerving. I’ve always figured that, because I have a family history of osteoporosis and three of the four risk factors, someday I would start shrinking, but I didn’t think it would happen before I turned 40. Granted, the use of hormones can affect bone density and I’ve been doing hormone treatments for invitro procedures eight times in the past three years, but that wasn’t something I expected to hear. If I get much shorter, I’ll disappear!

     Then I went into the room and rolled up my sleeve for the blood pressure reading. I warned the PA that my blood pressure is low – last time I went to the doctor it was 90/60 and the assistant asked if it was usually low. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing, but I have a slightly high heart rate and low blood pressure, so I made sure she knew in order to avoid any questions. She listened for a minute and then left the room. She came back in with another assistant because she couldn’t hear my pulse enough to tell what my blood pressure was. The second assistant said it was faint but it was 92/60. The lowest my blood pressure has ever been was 70/40 and that was because I was getting a cortisone shot in my knee and had it described to me in graphic detail by the doctor. He nearly made me faint, so it wasn’t just me! Anyway, it was really weird to think that they couldn’t hear what they needed to – after all, I was fully conscious. After that it was just the routine questions and the requisite inhaler, antibiotic and nasal spray were prescribed. Nothing like drama at the doctor’s office to end an otherwise routine day.