Dear DrJ58,
No, we pretty much agree with what I said, unless I am reading your post incorrectly. The question was asked, "would you rather play in a doctors office or in surgery", or something along those lines.
My choice hands down is a doctors office, not in a surgical space seeing as how I absolutely do not have a surgical fetish at all.
Now, I did say something along the lines of "there just isn't anything better than playing in a real doctors office, then sited some of the reasons I felt this way as being because of the smell, and the availability of the equipment on hand". Another reason I didn't mention was because a doctors office to me anyway is so much more personal, and for lack of better terms, "less sterile", and I mean that as in a doctors office being a bit more cozy. And I am not articulating myself really well tonight so please forgive me. A doctors office is usually a lot smaller, your doctor is or pretty much can be in eye sight at all times, and often even within arms reach. In the office the doctor isn't all covered with gowns, masks and double gloved. The patient in the office is usually wearing a gown and isn't heavily draped under all the "formalities" drape-wise, hair covering and whatever else that is often associated with being in an OR.
It seems to me that if the playdoc is trying to keep things as real as possible in an OR setting, then it would bet the nature of the beast so to speak, (again, if he's trying to keep thing as real as possible), that there are going to be a lot of times when the doctor is not in eye sight of the patient, and definitely won't be within arms reach. The OR doc is going to be hidden behind a shroud of surgical attire, gowns, masks, gloves, booties etc. The OR patient might have a gown on, but would also be laden with multiple layers of surgical drapes, (again, if done properly). In a real like OR setting there would be very little if any skin to skin contact between the playdoc and the patient. And I could go on and on, but I am sure you are getting the point I am trying to make here.
I much more enjoy the doctors office setting because of the much higher level of intimacy between the doctor and patient. You and I are kindered sprits SJ, we both like things to be as real as possible not to mention accurate too. Not too many surgeons sit down on their little stools going over pages in your chart and ask questions accordingly. A surgeon isn't going to give you a head to toe physical, or ever have the need to touch your skin with an ungloved hand.
On a personal note, I have never met a surgeon that hasn't been an asshole, and I mean that without any respect what so ever. They tend to be very cold people, almost "sterile" if you will. A surgeon doesn't deal with a person as a person, they deal with only the part of the person that needs operated on. A surgeon will almost never want or need to get to know you as you, as a person. A surgeon also will usually seldom if ever deviate from the topic at hand, which would be what he needs to operate on. A patient has very little chance to build any kind of rapport with a surgeon because as I stated earlier, surgeons don't usually care about you as a person, but only the part of you that they need to fix. And an OR is a very sterile environment, and I mean that both ways, as it's sterile meaning as germ free as possible, and "sterile" as in cold, and both kinds of cold as well, cold as in freezing, and cold as in uninviting, which is somewhat what I mean as the other meaning of "sterile". That kind of environment automatically puts me on edge, and not in a fun kinky sort of way either.
With a doctor and his office, good doctors anyway, the doctor usually tries what he can to actually build a rapport with his patient. A doctor will often times share personal antidotes, stories, and how he can relate as best he can to his patient. You can actually look into a doctor office doctor's face, and eyes, you can see his smile, you can feel his smile if that makes any sense, which is another great way to build a rapport with your doctor. In an office setting the patient gets to be touched with the doctors ungloved hands (where appropriate). And again, I could go on and on here, but I am sure you are able to see a lot of the differences I am trying to convey as to why I like to play in a doctors office and with a doctor, and why I don't want to ever play with a surgeon or in a surgical setting.
How I have explained this to some of my vanilla friends before in the past when they asked the same question or one similar is like this. For example, you go over to your friends house for coffee or something and he/she tells you to have a seat in the living room for a few minutes while she/he gets your coffee. Now, you enter the living room. There are 4 options in which you can pick from, either the love seat or sofa, both of which are covered in a fitted plastic covering A.K.A-couch condoms, lol, (you know the ones, they used them a lot back in the 70's and were meant to protect your furniture from stains or wearing out the fabric so they would last longer), or your other two options would be one of the two, not covered in protective plastic, soft fabric chairs with a table between them. Now where would you sit and why? Well, if you are normal, you are gong to pick to sit in one of the chairs that is not covered in plastic. And the reason you picked the non plastic chair over the "condom covered" couch/love seat is because the chair doesn't seem as "cold" and "sterile", and is definitely more inviting, not to mention looks more comfortable. So do you see and understand my little comparison there between the OR/surgeon=the condom covered "cold" and "sterile" love seat/couch vs. the doctors office/doctor=the comfortable plush, warm and inviting chairs? (And if you were going to say the chairs because there is a table between them to set your coffee cup on, cheekiness will only causes Nurse Mashie to dull the needles prior to all of your injections you would be receiving on account of you being cheeky, lol.)
Now, on a more personal note my good friend, I hope I didn't offend you by saying that I prefered a doctors office over a surgical venue. Do you consider your playspace more of an OR, or more like a doctors office? From the pictures you have posted and have sent me, I took your playspace, which for anyone who hasn't seen it, it's really top of the line, I have to admit, to be a doctors office setting, not an OR type of setting. Am I wrong on that? Maybe I need to look at your pictures again.
Now, as far as the smell goes, I also have no doubt in my mind that your play space has that classic medical smell which is also one of the key factors that attracts me to playing in an office setting more so than an OR setting. Both places have a very almost sterile (in the true sense of the word) medicinal smell to them, and I am sure a lot of the same products are used in both types of settings, but they both still each have their own unique smell. It's hard to explain that or exactly what I mean, but while faintly you can smell similarities between the two, you can equally faintly smell the differences too.
Well now that that's all clear as mud, lol, maybe our kindered spirits can once again find themselves back on the same page, lol. Let's hope anyway no? Hehehe.
Mashie