Life in the Waiting Room: 10 Steps to a Successful Doctor Visit

Here is a little story of Lucy's doctor visit situation so far. This is the routine every two weeks. Since Lucy is nine months pregnant, fortunately this will be the "routine" only two more times...

Step one: call the doctor three days prior to the appointment in order to schedule a visit. Two: the visit time is scheduled for 7pm. Therefore, due to traffic, leave at 5 or 5:30 in order to get there in time. Three: wait for car and driver to arrive in order to be able to go. Four: because it is rush hour (and when is it not), press through traffic to go only a few miles in over an hour. Five: arrive at the hospital and take a number. Find out that we are in line behind 30 other couples. Six: leave the hospital to go to a nearby aunt's place. Eat dinner. Watch a movie. Hang out and talk. Seven: go back to the hospital to find out we are still 15 couples back. Hang out. Walk around. Play with the kids. Read a few magazines. Watch a movie on the waiting room t.v. Eight: finally our time has arrived. It is 12:30am. See the doctor. Have an ultrasound. Chit chat for 5 minutes. Nine: follow the nurse to the cashier. Ten: wake up the driver and head home. We are now ready for bed. The kids are too. It is after 1 am.

We used to think it was bad in L.A. waiting an hour or hour and a half to see the doctor. I guess a popular doctor in a city of 10 million is going to be a challenge. Well, actually we are learning how to negotiate the system in order not to get stuck at the end of the line. I guess when you are green you've got to work from the bottom up. The doctor is great and we have the special letter that gives us a bee line to the delivery room for when the time comes. If only we can get traffic to open up for us on our special day.