What do you do once you are in the exam room and are waiting for the doctor?

What do you do once you are in the exam room and are waiting for the doctor?

I know back before social media and cell phones, I would look through the cabinets and drawers. I remember being nervous about the drawers on the exam table because they always seemed to make a lot of noise.

Now a days I feel like most probably kill the time on our phones scrolling.

Back then I would just sit there on the examining table, staring at the stethoscope lying around while my heart was literally bursting out of my throat xD Good times.

I go over in my head what I want to discuss with her, especially if it is a new doctor

Usually review what I want to ask, and look around at what's in the cabinets and on the counters, but don't touch anything 😃.

Since COVID we have been in an era where there is nothing available to read so I usually will count ceiling tiles and calculate the square footage of the room. If no doc when I'm done with that I'll take out my iphone and check my stock portfolio and compare the graphs at the YTD, 1 year, 2 year, 5 year, and 10 year levels. I seldom get all the way through before hearing that faint knock and the doc coming in.

Now a days I feel like most probably kill the time on our phones scrolling.

Same here, check my mail, the news, what’s new on Zity. I DONT look at dirty pics in case someone walks in unnoticed!

Check the drawer in the exam table for speculums as well as the waste basket to see if there are any used ones.

Sub and I just chat. I tend to also read the posters on the wall, if they are new. The Internet is not something I do out and about. It distracts from those I am with and those around me.

I agree, back in the day once the nurse led me to the room she would do the preliminary tests e.g.; BP, temp and give me the cup for the urine specimen. Came back into the room after the urine specimen and she would tell me "strip to your underwear and have a seat on the table".

I would look around the room and study the charts etc....only once did I check the drawers and or cabinets. Never knew when the Doc would knock.

Currently, I just scroll on the phone.

Nowadays I stare at the fading charts on the wall...usually the respiratory or skeletal system.

When I was 14 or 15, after the nurse told me to strip, I closed the blinds on the window. The exam table was below the window and I thought the whole neighborhood would see me lying there on the table when he pulled down my undies. Alas, the doctor came in and started the exam, and once I was flat on the table he reached over and adjusted the blinds!

When I was older I would look in the drawers and cupboards. I never worried about the doc catching me. He would always knock, and there were these metal "flags" on hinges on the door jamb that indicated the room was occupied. Anyone remember those? I think they were color coded for empty / occupied by patient / ongoing exam. The doc would always slam them around and then knock, so there was a warning.

In my early 20s the boldest thing I did was try to eavesdrop on another exam. I had a physical early the morning. My doc's office scheduled them that way. I thought I would be the first exam of the day. When I arrived there was another guy about my age in the waiting room. He was called back first, then I was maybe five to seven minutes later. I was taken to exam room 3 and the little metal flag on the next room was moved away from the wall. So the other guy was next door. I was sitting on the table in my undies, but the table was on the far wall from the occupied exam room. I heard the moving of the flag and the knock on the neighboring door. I jumped up and pressed my ear to the wall. I heard the doc greet the patient but then his voice level dropped. Later I did hear the metal shelf thing pulled out from the table, so I suspected the doc was checking his genitals...but could not hear anything else. Needless to say that day has fueled some medfet fantasies.

I wait anxiously and imagine what my consultation would be like.