Just call me...PO Day 114

The older I get, the younger everyone else has become. My doctors all seem too young to have made it through college, med school, and a residency. Doesn't that take some thing like eleven years? The receptionist in their office looks like she came straight from her high school graduation. The nurse wearing teddy bear patterned scrubs reminds me of my granddaughter ready for a pajama party. Only the hospital volunteers, with their grey hair and compression stockings, look like they can empathize with my age-related diagnosis.

And when was the rule book for addressing people in a professional setting thrown out? I want to call my physician "Doctor So and So." If we happen to be next door neighbors, I'll call him or her by their first name at home and stick to the formal greeting in the office or hospital. And I want the staff to use the "Doctor" honorific for the boss too. I'll let the office or hospital staff guide me on how to address them; it helps if they wear a name tag or there's a name plate on the desk.

Ms. Manners opened up a can of worms when she tackled the problem of how medical staff should address the patients. There definitely seemed to be a generational preference. I personally think Miley seems more natural than Ms. Cyrus but Mr. Eastwood sounds better than Clint. If my name is going to be called out loudly in the waiting room, I think  "Willet Healing," that is first and last names, sounds professional and avoids the confusion of two Ms. Healings in the house or stranger still, two Willets. Using just the last name or just the first name doesn't work on more esthetic grounds. One seems curt and the other seems too familiar.

Perhaps the safest approach is for the interviewer to ask us how we would like to be addressed. Wouldn't that be refreshing? But what will probably happen, what with the computerization of medical practices, is that I will become known as 75623A. And,  if I have had to wait very long, I will be glad to hear my "number" called.

http://youtu.be/2jfVpizj1Uk

Archive timeline: 2014: May and June - preparing for surgery, July - surgery and post op problems, August - recovery and physical therapy, September - thinking medically.