Last week, the television station offered free flu shots. I signed up and then promptly forgot about it when the magic day came.
So, today, following in the footsteps of my wife and daughter, I drove down to my doctor’s office. I call him Steve. He wants to be called Steve. He’s been my doctor for almost 20 years… so Steve seems right.
Helaine, on the other hand, feels better medicine comes from someone with no first name other than ‘Dr.’
There’s really no way I could know if he’s really a good doctor, except to know that he’s smart… and smart counts for a lot in medicine and everything else. And, he’s a good person with a warm heart. There aren’t too many other people I’ve trusted with my life for nearly twenty years. I have never had a second thought.
His outer office was crowded… others getting their shots.
I remember, as a kid, Dr. Levy’s office back home in Flushing. Sidney Levy, MD was our family physician. His wife was his nurse and pretty much ran the place. His office was built into his house. You couldn’t go to Dr. Levy without sitting for hours in that cramped waiting room. It always seemed like there wasn’t quite enough oxygen to go around for everyone there. And, if you weren’t sick when you got there, you could be sure someone with something comkmunicable would be sitting close by.
Dr. Levy was the first person I ever knew who had a Mercedes Benz. He called it his Moishe Benz. Being Jewish, back in the 60’s, there was still a certain uneasiness in buying German.
There were already a mother and her grown daughter when I got to Steve’s today. The daughter was doing business on her cell phone. Unfortunately, she was doing it at a level high enough to include everyone else there. After a few minutes another mother – adult child combo walked in. She was hacking away. A Dr. Levy flashback.
It didn’t take long before it was time to get my injection.
Here I am, 53 years old, and I still panic over the prospect of getting a shot. I have often thought, “How can people become IV drug users? How can anyone take a needle for a good time.”
Hopefully, I won’t get the flu this year. And, hopefully, the soreness in my right arm will soon be gone. Did I mention, I hate getting shots.