Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Sharon Bryant

February 24, 2008

Light Fixtures

Sharon Bryant

We've all heard stories about an incident in a doctor's office that didn't go very well.  Last night a friend and I were talking and she asked what incident in my lifetime stood out in my mind.

Hmmmm I thought, there have been a few.  But one I remember very well.

I was nineteen years old.  I had caught a cold and I couldn't shake it.  Orange juice didn't work.  Plenty of water didn't work.  Soothing cough drops; no matter what I tried, I still had the sore throat.

I was not living in my home state so I had to flip through the yellow pages to find a doctor.  I called and made the appointment.

I remember very well what I was wearing that day.  I had a white blouse on and a navy blue skirt.

A nurse escorted me into the room and told me to sit on the table covered with white paper. 

She said the doctor would be right with me. 

I looked at the walls that had some pretty pictures hanging.

I used to hang wall paper so I'm always looking at the walls, seeing if I can find seams. 

My eyes went up to the  high ceiling and I noticed the overhead light.  It was silver, some kind of metal and it had spoke type little "arms" from the center of the light.  There were five or six of those things sticking out from the center of the fixture.  They stuck out a good foot from the center of the light.

The door opened and the doctor appeared.  He introduced himself and said, "I see you have a sore throat."  I told him yes, I'd had one for a few days and couldn't get rid of it.

His next words I will never forget.

"Take your clothes off and lay on the table and pull the white "sheet" over your body.  I'll be back in a minute."

Take my clothes off?  For WHAT?  The only thing he had to look at was my throat.  Take his little light, shine it into my mouth, maybe take my blood pressure.....but take my clothes off???  I don't THINK so.

I was burning with rage at his suggestion.  A minute or two went by and I jumped off the table, grabbed my purse and was heading out the door to meet a nurse coming in.

"You haven't taken you clothes of," she said.  "No, and I'm NOT going to take them off," I told her.  "I came in here for a sore throat, not a pap test."

She informed me the doctor had to check my stomach.  I told her he could do that WITH my clothes on.

"Now, now, let's calm down," she said.  "It will only take a minute.  Hurry and undress, the doctor is waiting."

My mind was reeling.  My stomach she said, he had to check my stomach.  Well, ok, I had my half slip on under my skirt so I'd just take my skirt off.  As I was unbuttoning  the side button and unzipping my zipper, I got really mad.  I still didn't see why I had to take anything off. 

I stepped out of my skirt and I was so mad, I flung it. 

It landed on one of the spokes of the light fixture.

In comes the doctor.  I'm sitting on the stupid table in my blouse and slip, my skirt was hanging down from one of the spokes on the light and naturally he saw it the minute he entered the room.

He looked at me and said, "How did that happen?"

I said, "I play basketball and I was practicing a shot."

He had to get a broom handle to get my skirt from the light fixture.  The nurses were laughing, the doctor said he'd never seen anything like it before and when he handed me my skirt, I informed him I changed my mind, and I walked out of the room in my slip.  I slid into my skirt in the hall.

Every time a nurse tells me to undress, I always look at the light fixtures.

Today I can laugh about it but at the time it was happening, it was not funny.

So much for sore throats..........

Sharon Bryant