Thursday #69 – woke up early and full of nerves this Thursday
as I was about to have my first full day of seeing patients. Having seen a couple of patients on Wednesday
as part of our induction week, I was a little less scared and semi prepared for
what was to come. It was also the first
day I would meet the team at Brookvale, having done all my training in the city
with a bunch of people I will most likely never see again.
I got the bus in and was ridiculously early as I hadn’t
wanted to risk being late on my first day.
I swung by Baker’s Delight and Coles for a Cheese & Tomato Roll and
OJ for brekkie as for the 3rd or so day in a row I still hadn’t bought
milk to have with my Weetbix. I eventually
headed in and met the gang before The Mentor/Senior/Other Optom showed me
around on a mini tour. Before we knew it
it was 9:00 and our half an hour of “special time” in the appointment book was
drawing to a close. It was time for
patients. First up was Mother Hot One.
I was super relieved to have a friendly face first up,
though she may have been a little unsure when she had to point out where my
light switch was – apparently my tour had not been comprehensive enough! As part of the service I provide, Mother Hot
One was lucky enough to undertake a visual fields test. We sat in a dark room for about 15 minutes,
she stared at lights and pressed a button; I stared at the computer and judged
whether she was pressing the button appropriately. It was fun all round. Since our tour had run late, there was no
downtime between patients and just after farewelling Mother Hot One it was time
for patient number two. With one under
my belt I was feeling a little more confident and had knocked out four patients
before lunch (probably half the amount The Mentor/Senior/Other Optom had done
but the most I could do given the longer appointment times I had been
allocated).
For lunch I ate my salad I’d prepared the night before then
headed into the mall to briefly wander around the shops. After what felt like 20 minutes, my 45 minute
lunch was over as I had to be back in the office and ready to go for my patient
straight after lunch (so technically I feel like I only really get a 40 minute
break but who’s counting). Another two
patients after lunch and then it was time for my final patient of the day –
Brother Hot One. He had come in for the
same reason as Mother Hot One so by this stage in the day he got a much more
streamlined eye test and even the riveting visual fields test didn’t seem to
take quite so long. He was out of there
by about 4.30 so I spent my last half hour making sure I was on top of all my
Medicare forms, had everyone’s records saved in the computer, and briefly
recapped (in my head) my first day and seven patients.
There was some keratoconus, some migraines, some glaucoma
suspects, some reading glasses and a couple of “general checkups coz it’s been
about 10 years”. All in all not a bad
first day. I headed to the bus stop and
waited for the L90 to head into the city and meet DTM. For a while I had wondered if maybe he was
onto my blog as it seemed anytime he suggested an activity he was keen for it
be a Thursday. My first thoughts were “isn’t
that nice it’s just like old times” as these Thursday night outings had
inspired this whole blog; my second thoughts were “wait a minute, he must know
about this and is trying to get himself a good name” as The Hot One did once
unintentionally spill the beans and we’ve been unsure if he knows ever
since. Finally I cracked it, it was
neither option A nor option B but in fact a timetabling issue – the buses run
later and more frequently on Thursday nights due to late night shopping. Instead of the last bus home being 9pm, we
also get a 10:30 option and a midnight one.
We met at the QVB and headed to get some Nando’s for dinner –
because we’re heaps fancy like that. A chicken
burger and some peri peri chips later we were ready to head down to Darling
Harbour for a night of musical theatre…DTM could hardly contain his
excitement. We headed to The Star and
grabbed a couple of drinks before making our way to The Lyric Theatre for Legally Blonde The Musical. I had decided it was time to cash in some of the “time
doing girly things” that DTM had promised me after I spent the best part of a
week at test cricket in Barbados. He reckons
this 2.5 hour musical was more than enough to call it even but from where I
stand we’ve still got a good 3 days of girly things before we’re close to even.
He tried his best to look mortified (and perhaps genuinely
was during the opening rendition of “Omigod You Guys”) but I know deep down he
enjoyed it. This is after all the same
man who just weeks after sitting through epic that is Les Misérables wants to
go see the live version in Chatswood. My
personal highlight was the song that asked that age old question – is he gay or
European? With lyrics like “you see they
bring their boys up different in those charming foreign ports, they play
peculiar sports in shiny shirts and tiny shorts. Gay or foreign fella? The
answer could take weeks, they will say things like “ciao bella” while they kiss
you on both cheeks” it raised some very valid points.
After the show we headed to a bar, partly to kill time
before the bus and partly so that DTM could feel slightly more manly after the
evening’s activities. We got the
midnight bus home and I walked from the bus stop like a dero in just my
stockings after 17 hours in new shoes had me in agony. A scary Thursday initially topped off with a
good night out. Gonna be a hard one to
top.
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