Take A Pill

The GP Nazi ripped open the envelope I handed him. He unfolded the piece of paper inside and almost immediately tossed it onto the desk. I angled my head to glance at the schematic pattern of the EKG tracing of my heartbeat.

How does that look? I asked him when it appeared he wasn’t going to be at all forthcoming. Somewhat begrudgingly he gave it the all clear. So that was that sorted out. What about the blood tests? Bad cholesterol was low. Good cholesterol was low. There was no indication of any thyroid problem or diabetes either.

I forced the smile off my face. The results didn’t seem to be pleasing him. He took my blood pressure. I didn’t say a word this time, just sat back and tried to relax. It was considerably lower than before. He waited a couple of minutes then took it again to double check. And that was lower, but obviously still not enough for his liking even though it had only been a couple of weeks.

The little label printer was already spitting out a piece of adhesive with my information on it. That wasn’t going to be good. He slapped it down onto a form for more blood tests. This time they didn’t require me to fast for twelve hours before the nurse slipped the needle in.

I was also handed a new prescription, this time for a couple box of vasodilator capsules to go with the existing Amlodipine, which I’m sure will be nice. Breezily, he told me to return a week before they ran out, although I could come back earlier if I started suffering any of the side effects. Huh?!