What's up doc?

Well, I've been paying a small fortune for health insurance for months now and I was almost two years overdue for my annual checkup so I finally dragged myself to the doctor today. I hate going to the doctor. They always find something wrong with you and then they want you to keep coming back and they send you to see other doctors and before you know it, you're spending all your time in medical offices... It's vicious.

It was really hard to make an appointment to see someone new. I'd been seeing Harvey, my last doctor, for so long he knew my first husband. I didn't have to explain things to him and he never hollered at me for failing to make follow-up visits.

I fussed around about picking a new doctor based on their credentials for the last six months. There's literally hundreds from choose from within my geographic range. Ridiculous waste of time. In the end, I just decided to take the luck of the draw and called the practice nearest to me here in town and took the first appointment I could get.

The good news is, I like the new doc. He was nice enough and very laid back. He even spent some time chatting. They seem a little less pressed for time here. It turns out we have some things in common. Detroit for instance. He lived there for four years. The other good news about the doctor thing here is that even a small practice like this one, is self-contained. They do blood draws and xrays in house. Even better, I had a great phlebotomist. It didn't hurt and you can't even see where she took the draw. I've had some hospital draws done where I left looking like a junkie with a bad aim.

So pending the results, it appears I'm going to live a while longer, even though my blood pressure still sucks. I don't think 150/90 is that good. I thought it might go down since I left the stress of the law firm but it seems to me that's about where I was when I said goodbye to Noho. Of course considering I spend all my time now, thinking and talking about the relentless indiginities of the Bush administration, perhaps I shouldn't be that surprised. Politics is not really a restful preoccupation. There are days I wish I didn't know so much.