Ok, in the details.
But some thoughts are details. And others can seem like details, or they might be whole stories -- depends where you're standing. I'm sharing here some of those details/thoughts. They're written from various perspectives - the doctor's, the patient's, fly-on-the-wall.
Do the same, dear friends, else the wonderful gem we call our imagination collects dust in the pit of day-to-day reality.
Here go the thoughts/details:
* The doctor asks a patient to "remove her top clothes" prior to auscultation. She takes her shirt off, pauses for a while, then asks: "My bra as well?"
* She is being examined supine, the bell over her apex. The doctor kind of glossed all other major auscultation points, but is spending a good amount of time over her mitral valve. He goes "Mm."
* I glance at my list of appointments for today as soon as I get to the clinic, only to see the name of one of my wife's friends on the list. She's got the last appointment. Her surname is quite common. I spend all day wondering whether it's actually her.
* She is topless. She is leaning forward as you, the doctor, is listening to her breathing over her back. You are standing by her. You focus on three things simultaneously: the little folds of her armpits, her breasts as she leans forward, and her facial expression - containing, perhaps, an amount of embarrassment.
* During the EKG of a slightly nervous, thin-breasted patient, you observe the electrodes slightly bouncing on her chest with the force of her heartbeat.
* In an unknown town in an unknown hotel, you meet your dream steth partner. All of your fantasies come true.
* You were sure this was going to happen. You spent days trying to prevent it from happening. You tried meditation, sauna, and pot. Nothing worked. You wished it away. You tried to be cool. You *were* cool, up until seconds before he asked you to remove your top and reached for his stethoscope in his pocket. That's when your knees went to jelly again. Now, you sit there with your breasts fully exposed. He's pressing with the diaphragm over your tricuspid valve. You can feel your own heart kicking against the stethoscope.