my sleep deprivation, while good for wedding gown shopping, is not so good for the dealing with the compliments from the old men patients. yesterday, a patient said this:
"i appreciate your what you did today. you are very good at what you do...very complete and thoughtful. and on top of that, you are very attractive"
i snapped a little bit and told him 'well, that was inappropriate' and promptly ended our appointment (which was over anyway). usually i can put up with it because these old veterans are from an entirely different world. i'm sure he thought 'what a nice complement to give'. quite frankly, it doesn't happen as often as you'd think with the old men coming to a clinic that is staffed almost entirely by younger women. but, he was unfortunate enough to be the THIRD guy in a row to say something dumb like that and he caught my wrath. before he left the clinic, he wrote out a note, in his shaky old man handwriting, and insisted that it be given to me immediately. it said
"Mrs. Jana, please accept my apology for my inappropriate comment just now. you are a professional woman and should not be subjected to comments like that. it won't happen again. apologetically yours, xxxx"
It made me laugh hysterically. It made me cry a little bit.
It made me wish i saved the wrath for my next patient (he that told me I could blow in his ear and he'd follow me anywhere).
