I think that I look younger in medical situations. I’m really not sure why that is but here are two instances that happened before I tell you about what happened today:
Back when I was hospitalized with MS suspicion in 2000, a doctor was taking me to get tests done. He was pushing me in a wheelchair while we all piled in. The doctor who stood by the Control panel looked at the doctor pushing my wheelchair and asked, “6!” And the doctor pushing my chair corrected them and said, “No, 12.”
Here was what was going on, I didn’t understand it until the doctor who asked the question clarified. I can’t remember the numbers they said for real but the doctor pushing my chair got us into the elevator and the doctor at the buttons asked for the pediatric ward. He asked that because after he asked the floor number and the doctor pushing me corrected him, he said, “She’s not in peds?” Thinking that I was young enough to be a patient in the pediatric ward. I was 18 then.
Another time, I had to go to the ER for a chest x-ray because I had just moved into our first apartment and I was super stressed out! I was in a hospital gown and I was wearing my chucks.
I needed to have a chest x-ray done.
The nurse explained that I needed to stand in front of the x-ray machine against the wall. I was still able to walk back then because I was only 23 so I stood in front of the x-ray machine where I was told. As she was getting the films ready, she whispered into my ear, “You have cherries on your underwear!”
I was extremely taken aback by that remark because I was 23 years old!
commenting on the pattern on your underwear print is NOT something adults talk about with COMPLETE strangers! It was at that moment when I realized that I must look younger when I am wearing a hospital gown. I think that I just weekly smiled at her and agreed.
Becky, the new wound care nurse who came over today because Sonya had a day off. I was already out of bed and seated in my chair in the living room by the time she came. My Mom was scurrying around the house. Becky put her hand on my left shoulder and said, “How old are you, honey?”
I looked at her and told her that I was 40. We were both wearing masks but I could tell her mouth was agape! She told me that I looked like I was 16! Well, that’s a compliment I will NEVER forget as long as I live!
My Mom came back into the living room and we both laughed about me looking like I was 16. I think it was the glasses and the mask. I think I look younger in medical situations! I told her about the cherries on my underwear incident so I must look younger than I am obviously.
She said that my wounds look good but she opted to retape my right leg because it is looking angry on the edges. Sonya will be here on Friday to change them:
I remember that I laughed the night before we went to see Jen in the infectious disease clinic because I thought that it looked like I was wearing legwarmers! I was trying to come up with a good 80s song to sing but I couldn’t.