Monday, December 21, 2009

Phone call

First of all, thank you so much to all of you who left kind and encouraging messages on my acceptance to law school. I'm a bit deer-in-the-headlights right now, but in a good way.

Now to my post.

**

Is this how Dr. Grumpy feels with his bizarre patient phone calls?

I'm home with my family for Christmas. "Home" is a tiny town in southwestern Ontario, where my uncle is the only practicing GP (as was my grandpa before him). We have a fairly unique last name, so we occasionally receive calls intended for other members of the family.

Early this morning, the phone rang and I picked it up. The conversation was as follows:

Helen: Hello?

Elderly woman: MY FOOT!

Helen: ...Excuse me?

EW: It's horrible! There's so much pus and it's changing colours!

Helen: (Speechless)

EW: You told me to change the dressing today, and I started to unwrap it and it smells horrible! I picked the scab off of it and...

Helen: I think you're looking for my uncle! This is his brother's house.

EW: WHAT? My foot is full of pus!

Helen: You want my uncle! Dr. Helen'sUncle.

EW: WHAT?

Etc.

Why she thought I was my uncle, I have no idea. After much back-and-forth, I directed her to his number (sorry, uncle J! It is in the phone book, after all) and she rang off.

A small-town doctor has nowhere to run.

3 comments:

rheumablog said...

Oh my gosh! What an odd call to find yourself taking! Sounds like you kept your cool and got her all straightened out, Helen, and a good story to tell in the meantime. :o)
-Wren

WarmSocks said...

LOL
Sounds like these things are universal

Helen said...

It certainly was shocking! It did make a good story, though - my parents thought it was hilarious. :)