I started my Monday off at the doctor’s office for some Monday medicine.  While I only see my ob/gyn once a year, I resent the fact that I have to have a specialty doctor for every pat of my body.  When we lived in Minnesota, our family practitioner took care of all of our medical needs without referring us out.    In contrast, here in Florida family doctors are few and far between.  Consequently, you end up with a general practitioner or internist, an allergist, an ob/gyn, a podiatrist, an ortho, and a dermatologist.  I could literally go on all day naming the specialties all day!

To be clear, I have the utmost respect for all of my doctors and am quite happy with all of them.  My complaint is that I hate having to go to 36 different people for every little thing.  As a result, instead of one co-pay, you end up paying 36.   It just stifles my willingness to go to the doctor.  As much as I hate paying the co-pays, I simply don’t have the time for 36 appointments.  I don’t know if it just the reality of living in S. Florida an area dominated by an elderly population or if it is just what medicine has become.

Fortunately, today’s appointment went well.  I won’t be back to her office for at least another 365 days.   Since she got out of the ob world, her wait times have dropped dramatically.  Today I barely waited and was in and out of the office in less than 45 minutes.  In contrast, when I was pregnant with the Mayor, I often sat in the waiting room upwards of 45 minutes.   Thank god those days are over!

Lastly, in addition to a song, I’m sharing some of my favorite quotes that  use the word stifle.  Stifle is the word for the daily prompt, but I found these two quotes to be exceptionally poignant.  Tonight’s song permed by Pearl Jam is “Alive.”