I Wish.
We get an interesting mix at Christmas time.

First, we get the "worried well" - people who've spotted a lump and for them every lump = instant death. Annoyingly, those patients who do have breast cancer never come to see us until it's too late. Those who don't but believe that they have come in instead.

Secondly we get the asthmatics, OAPs, diabetics and cardiac patients who've finally got around to coming in for their flu jabs (thankfully the nurse handles them very well but makes a point of punting them on to us with the sniffles).

And finally the teenage Mums wanting us to "check over little Leona will ya, she's been coughing and sneezing all night" ... erm, yes, Miss X if you're going to smoke sixty a day at home whilst watching daytime television with your kids around you and not take them outside to get any fresh air or play of course she's going to cough!

Worst of all though - worse than any of these - are the people who don't come in. The OAP patients who decide that they "don't want to bother us at Christmas" and we can expect to do house calls once or twice a week to an OAP, called by their caregivers, who've found Mrs Y on the floor unable to get up.

I'll be happy when Christmas is come and gone.
(Medical_Male Say aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, Tue 15 Dec 2009, 13:52, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

My mum
That sounds a lot like my mum. My brother and I bullied her for ages to visit the 'too busy' doc and she was palmed off with antidepressants. Now, many months later, she has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
(misspiggy In danger of having to get a job, Tue 15 Dec 2009, 14:59, Reply)