A day at the doctor with my daughter

Well, actually, it was the Nurse Practitioners, but that wrecks the alliteration.

I usually have no problems with this place. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. So I go there for the easy things, like school physicals. I think there was one year with John that they got a bit backed up and it took almost an hour, but today...today I was horribly disappointed and irritated by the way things were being done.

They decided to try an assembly line tactic, with a nurse manning each station, and two nurse practitioners for the examinations, which take a bit longer. And it all went really well. Except at one station, where the nurse seemed to think that 3 - 5 minute task at hand should take a minimum of 10 minutes, and that it would be a good idea to chatter at her co-workers, who were WITH PATIENTS, in between dealing with her own patients. So a process that has never before taken more than 50 minutes, from check-in to walking out, took 3 hours.

Thank the powers that be that it was an appointment for Abby and not John. He would have been climbing the walls after the first hour, and pulling them down out of boredom by the second. Abby-girl, however, decided to turn on the charm. (Which explains how she got crayons, a coloring book and a couple of lollipops BEFORE she got to the shots.) As the nurses waited  for (and subtlely prodded) their errant coworker to pick up the pace, Abby coyly answered questions, playing shy at first and then showing off as time went by. She made up great descriptions for the pictures on the eye tests. There's a heart, a leedle heart and teeny baby heart, a couple of moon looking shapes, and the thing that you use to make vampires go away. (That's my girl.) And that's not a diamond. Those sparkle. It's a square on its corner. (Lord help whoever dates her.) She bravely handled the finger stick and blood draw for the lead test, and shed no tears over getting her shots. In fact, afterward she told me she knows she's ready to get her ears pierced because the needles don't bother her. The nurses found that hysterical. I did too, if only because I knew what her father's reaction is to her getting her ears pierced...

She's already plotting how to get his permission. *grin* Any bets on whether she gets them for her birthday in January?