My
wife and I were riding the bus home after a long work day. We were
thinking warm thoughts of the supper we would soon be enjoying when
suddenly this older woman pushes her way in to sit between us and
begins talking, “I'm Jan and I have C.O.P.D.,” she says, “and
that makes it hard to breath. . . .” We didn't know this lady and
we had no interest in her medical issues. Besides that, we had not
invited her to share our bus seat.
Clearly
she does not care that she has intruded and she pulls out her Ipad
and begins to show us videos of her and her dog; her and her grand
children and her blowing out candles on a birthday cake.
“Since
I started with Spiriva, I feel much better. . . . “
We
didn't really care about her favorite drug. We just wanted to get
home to our supper.
“Ask
your doctor if Spiriva is right for you, she says just before she
finally gets up and leaves.
We're
pleased she is gone, but then a few minuets later she returns, pushes
her way between us again and begins as if we had never heard her
spiel before.
“I'm
Jan and I have C.O.P.D. and that makes it hard to breath. . . .”
Finally,
our stop comes up and we leave her going through her pitch to no one
in particular. The next day was similar. This time it was an older
overweight man who pushes his way between us. “I'm Mike and I have
Diabetic Foot Pain,” he says. He too, pulls out his Ipad and begins
to show us videos of him playing golf.
We
try to tune him out, “. . . Ask your doctor if Lyrica is right for
you,” he says as we look away. That pattern repeats every night-
night after night.
Oh,
wait! We're not on a bus in the city on our way home. We're sitting
on the couch in front of our TV at home in a small desert town in
Southern Utah, waiting for our supper to warm in the microwave.
A
thin looking woman in a white lab coat comes on the screen. She's
walking around talking to what appears to be her patients. Then she
speaks to the camera, “I have dry eye . . . .” That's when I push
the mute button.
Copyright
2015 by Richard McDonald
Entries are the works in progress. The finished work appears under 'Categories' or in the Pages Bar. All content on this blog is the copyrighted original work of Richard McDonald.
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