Father-and-Sons Do Medicine

We went to the doctor's the other day. It was my first father-and-son visit; Ian and I both had had ear-aches, so we were both seen by the doctor. Daniel went along, partly so that we could have his ears checked, a bit proactively, although I suspect that the arrangement of "boys day out" may have been serendipitous for the girl's own agenda for the day...

Daniel brought his doctor's kit, so effectively we had two doctors in the room. Daniel diligently followed up on his own, on the diagnostic tasks undertaken by "mainstream" doctor and nurse, with his stethoscope, otoscope and blood-pressure guage. And the intern learned quickly. When the nurse took Ian's blood pressure, she said something like, "This is just gonna give you a big bear-hug," and when Daniel took my blood pressure, he said something like, "This is gonna give you a hug."

At one point, the doctor himself acknowledged "Doctor Dan," and Ian immediately volunteered, "We call him 'Daniel'."

As Daniel was checking my heartbeat, I deliberately lined up the stethoscope with my heart, because the gizmo, in spite of being a toy, is actually somewhat conductive of sound, and I thought he might be able to hear it. When I asked him, "Can you hear anything, Daniel?", he reasurred me, "No, but you're okay." If a mainstream, allopathic doctor had told me the same thing, I might be worried.

Later, after additional evalution, Daniel qualified the reassurance: "Well, you're almost like okay, but not okay." That's more in line with what I normally hear from the doctor.

As we were leaving, Daniel clarified his role: "Daddy, I'm the doctor for you and Mommy."

Meanwhile, Ian took a highy proactive role in his own diagnosis. As the nurse was having us stand on a scale to get weighed - still in the hall, before we went into a proper office - Ian was already beginning the dialog: "Do you want to know how I've been lately?" He quickly went on to report the cough of the day.

We actually had a very long visit, but at the end of it, the doctor complimented me on the boys' behavior, particularly in light of the visit's duration. I think that having a professional doctor and professional patient in tow made the visit much easier.

(February 18, 2010)