Well, as a matter of policy and what must be regarded as a deeply-held personal conviction, I avoid visiting the doctor and the hospital as a patient at all costs. Well, I reason to myself, they might find there is something wrong with me and I certainly wouldn’t want to live with that kind of depressing news.
Sadly for such a person as myself, today I had no choice as I had to report to the local GP for a ‘routine medical examination’ as the concluding part of the appointment process for my new post.
And what an amazing business it all was – a full hour almost of careful and detailed examinations taking in almost every system the human body has to offer.
I was weighed, measured, poked at, hit with a reflex hammer, stripped, squeezed, alcohol-consumption assessed, prodded, somewhat humbled and all by a doctor who looked as if she could have been young enough to have been a very little sister to me. Instead she was a consummate professional who carried out all the requirements of the examination with a pleasant efficiency.
In the end I think everything went fine, and I have been left with a bit of necessary weight loss to work on, but on the whole I would still say that it was indeed a daunting and nervy procedure and one I certainly wouldn’t want to have to undergo every week – especially not when the bill for £155 was presented to me at the end of it all!
