Some days, I really should take my own advice.  Especially when I’m sitting in a doctor’s waiting room.  Especially when another hour and a half goes by and I’m STILL sitting in the doctor’s waiting room.  Because I work full time and yet don’t make that much, I have to go to a government-appointed doctor.  Well, me and about 3,000 other people in Delaware County go to the same doctor, I swear.  I survived the experience, but I’m still shaking a bit and my thoughts are racing.  Well, for me, waiting is stressful.  Perhaps it is for you, too.  Let’s relax from waiting room stress by poking fun at me, shall we?  Works for me!

Doctors Have Unpredictable Schedules

Now, logically, I know that people do not have medical emergencies on schedule.  This is why any kind of medical professional tends to run late.  I usually try to counter this by getting morning appointments, but that doesn’t guarantee that I’ll ever see my doctor on time.  Because I know this is a possibility, I always bring a book to read and prepare myself for a long wait.

And yet, I still find that waiting is stressful, even though I already know that I will go through a long wait.  Why is this?

Games You Can Play In The Doctor’s Office

When I know that waiting is stressing me out, I find my thoughts race, my breathing gets shallow, I perch forward in my chair and I can’t concentrate on my book.  I could read the same sentences over and over again and it just won’t register on my brain.  So then I have to shut the book and try to play what I call Waiting Room Games (which are completely unlike Reindeer Games).  I try and guess the patient’s problem just from their mutterings.  But today, this wasn’t much of a game because somebody in the waiting room had Tourrett Syndrome. (I kid you not).

In other words, I got worked up.  The worries of what I have to get done in the day and how late I now am seem to kill my logic and my sense of humor.  Why is this?

Because I have absolutely no control over the situation. I did my part by showing up on time and DARN if everyone else should do the same.  However, we can’t control when people are going to get sick.  The Tourette Syndrome patient had a burn on the side of her face because, apparently, she went into a seizure the night before and rolled into a radiator. 

Yes, I felt sorry for her. 

But there was nothing I could do to help her. 

But yet I felt some sort of responsibility for her because I was sitting there in the same waiting room with her.

These are the thoughts that go through my head when I find that waiting is stressful.  You feel you should be doing something, but there is nothing to do, except wait.

Now, you can’t change the circumstances around you, but you can change your reaction to the circumstances.  I could’ve used the time in the waiting room to practice meditation. I could have taken some paper with me and tried to scribble out first drafts of the articles I have due today.  But noooooo, I chose to worry my brains out.

And so, really, I gave myself the stress.  And that didn’t really work very well for me today.

So, next time, let’s see if I can remember who is giving me the stress and see if I can keep a sense of humor. 

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