Last week I wrote about a Talbot County retiree who’s led an active, working retirement. I only barely alluded to physical problems that plague advancing age. The trick as a senior citizen is not to talk about one’s health status constantly and annoyingly.
Saying that, I spend a lot of time, usually not concentrated but nonetheless time-consuming, in antiseptic medical offices. The chairs and furnishings are equally pleasant and unnoteworthy. The magazines are usually old. The cliché “same old, same old” applies. Boring might be better.
During my retirement, I have become a frequent visitor to at least seven medical offices in Easton and St. Michaels and several others in Queen Anne’s County, Annapolis and Baltimore. I have become a reluctant habitué. No points are given for my loyal service to the medical community.
In most cases, the front-desk folks are courteous and efficient. They even smile every once in awhile. Sometimes they seem overwhelmed by the constant phone calls and the inevitable haranguing with distant insurance companies.
In most cases, the doctors are friendly and solicitous. Heartless, technically sound treatment is not the norm these days. Concern and compassion, expressed quickly and efficiently in accordance with insurance-driven patient count, is a welcomed aspect of medical office visits. The documented evidence that one’s health improves with considerate treatment, is becoming more acceptable to good doctors. Thank goodness.
Bedside manner counts.
Speaking of age–referred to at the outset–I find that my senior status enables me to push doctors and technicians for answers, to be unafraid to ask questions, even stupid ones. This sort of interrogation has another purpose: it’s usually necessary to answer your spouse’s searching questions.
Often this post-visit inquisition is more taxing than the exam.
I feel fortunate, as do others, to live in a town offering excellent medical and convenient care. At the same time, it’s unquestionably advantageous to live so close to world-class medical care and research in Baltimore and Washington. And Annapolis offers top-notch care, too.
I wrote most of this column while sitting in a waiting room; long rest periods (filled by sitting in a comfortable chair tethered to my IPhone) were part of the Cardiolite heart stress test process. It was bearable, but tiresome.
The waiting room is quiet, interrupted by summons for patients to step forward for further tests and phone chatter by the front-desk staff. Time passes slowly. The real world—and food and beverage–awaits me once I’m released from medical prison.
As I drove to the three-hour medical exam, I felt thankful I had the time and medical insurance to attend to my physical challenges (more elegant than “problems”). Note that the prior sentence contained “I” twice and “my” once. That, folks, reflects to some degree on retirement and its inherent invitation to be self-absorbed with medical “issues,” another overused, currently stylish and sometimes empty word.
After I returned home from last week’s visit to a medical emporium, I explained the exam in some detail to my patient wife. I think I did so to ensure myself I could understand and then describe the process. She was interested–until she wasn’t.
I go back to my favorite bugaboo: self-absorption is a terrible thing. It demands effort from the speaker and more so from the semi-interested listener. It can border on the obsessive.
Retirement is a wonderful state of being, particularly if you are healthy and happy. It offers a tableau of opportunities to do for others as well as yourself. It’s good for the soul.
Visits to medical offices are unavoidable, in moderation.
Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.
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