This was the first day I’d worn a white coat and been completely on my own, no immediate cover, no one to help me, just me, a 25 yr old rookie whose frontal lobes were still developing, with a thought running through my mind; ‘what can possibly go wrong today’. 

I was to find out. 

I was standing in for my general practitioner father, an old style family doctor. The nurse had rung in to say she was sick. I was medically on my own with only a young receptionist. I had never worked outside of a hospital before – scary. 

“Mrs Jones would you like to come in please”. She entered with a wee baby boy who was screaming the place down. The pitch of his screams was worse than any finger nail on a blackboard. A large ferocious looking Alsatian dog came in with them – a bit unusual I thought.

“What’s the problem with young Jimmy Mrs Jones”, I shouted above the screams of her son. 

“He’s screaming”, she said. Well that was a fruitless question, a good start to the day.

“How long’s this being going on?” What will she do with that one I wondered.

“I don’t know. I’ve just picked him up from mum’s. She’s had him a couple of days”. 

By now the dog was jumping up and trying to lick my face. I was having difficulty handling myself, not feeling particularly confident and this dog wasn’t making things any easier. I tried pushing it away, rather nervously, as I am a bit scared of Alsatians. I got bitten by one as a child. It bit me my right knee as I ran past it hiding in a shop doorway. The dog persisted. It knocked my auroscope off the desk and some papers. I decided to examine Jimmy without taking any more details.  The dog followed me and as I approached and tried to examine Jimmy’s ear, it jumped up on him. This did heaps for wee Jimmy. He increased the decibels of his screaming and raised the pitch. He was a wriggler. 

”Doctor don’t you think it would be a good idea to leave your dog outside”? 

I looked at her in disbelief. 

“Mrs Jones I thought it was your dog”. 

I hurried into the waiting room and asked, “does anyone here own an Alsatian”. There was no reply. Just ten faces staring at me. I summoned up some courage and grabbed the dog by it ‘s collar. I dragged him she it out of the surgery and pushed him her it into the street along with a not too discreet kick up its backside. 

A previous patient was standing outside by the door. I had not spotted her. As I turned I saw her and the RSPCA badge on her lapel. She looked at me disapprovingly.  

‘Boy this is not my day’, I thought.

“Really doctor you should know better”.

I had to find a place on my own. I took off up the stairs and found an empty room. I shut the door and released some tension.

By the time I returned to Jimmy he was as quiet as a church mouse.

“This is quite some first day in general practice you are having doctor”, said Mrs Jones. 

‘How on earth did she know’.

I took a look at Jimmy and found he had a middle ear infection.  I wrote out a prescription and handed it to her.

“Can you hold him for me a minute while I get a nappy out”. I obliged, only to wish I had not. Dear little Jimmy decided this was the moment to have a piddle. He did so all over my shirt and trousers. I stood there holding him away from me at arm’s length.

“You don’t hold babies like that young man, You could damage their shoulders”. She came over and took Jimmy away. I stood motionless, while she dressed him with her back to me. 

“Don’ t they show you how to handle babies during your training”? she asked in a kindly voice.

“Well actually yes, we had one day on the paediatric ward and that was about three years ago. She turned, saw the wet patches on my shirt and trousers and smiled. As she left she offered me a jelly bean.

P. S.

Some days one just knows things are not going to go well. It’s a new environment, job and situation. There’s an exaggerated unknown. There’s a tension, an expectation, a feeling. Maybe it’s these that bring about what one expects or they generate behaviour that attract events. Was that dog attracted by my pheromones. God knows.

Lesson number one  – When handling a wee nude child hold it so it pees towards someone else. 

I assumed it was Mrs Jones’ dog and I felt something wasn’t right. I ignored the feeling, went with my incorrect assumption.

Lesson number two. When a situation feels odd, wrong or suspicious check it out and the assumptions. Mrs Jones is this your dog? Asking this question would have made a big difference to my first day. It would have been easy too. 

In other situations with family members, loved ones and work colleagues – hmm – bit scary some times, maybe most. After all something threatening to the peace and tranquility may spring forth when one tries to verbalise a feeling that doesn’t yet come with clarity, that is arising from something unknown. Yet assumptions held unexpressed can lead to sad consequences.

“A month after our marriage I knew he didn’t love me. He came home one evening late, I smelt perfume on him and saw lipstick on his
collar”. 

For many years she had lived with a secret assumption that he had had an affair”, until one night she brought it out in an unusually heated argument. She was drunk, an unusual occupation for her.

What came out was that, all those years ago, his sister had come to see him in his office. She had been very upset and had cried on his shoulders! He took her home and they talked late into the evening. Years of pain for the fear of a question and its assumed answer. From that night, she didn’t give fully of herself. He felt it, settled and never knew why.

How often does this happen in your life? You have a sense, a feeling about something. You are not certain. You feel awkward. You ignore it. It’s only a small thing. It doesn’t matter. I might be wrong. It’s just me. Much easier to let it slide. 

A really minor example: the Bells were sharing a house with the Jones. The Jones had two kids who guzzled milk. One day Mrs Bell finds Mrs Jones mixing up some milk powder with water while a bottle of milk sat on the bench nearby. Mrs Bell asked why. Mrs Jones had got so used to the milk running out and quietly blaming the Bells for this that in her grumpiness she hadn’t seen the milk. A conversation ensued and things were sorted. Why hadn’t Mrs Jones brought up her concerns before?? If my wife had not asked, would she have ever brought it up. Did her grumpiness and resentment effect her optic nerve, didn’t see the milk right in front of her eyes.

Much better, especially with those close by, to check things out, before it becomes much too difficult. Bit risky in the short term maybe, there could be unpleasant consequences, for sure. But in the long term – well, what do you think? 

Seemingly tiny insignificant issues can develop into major ones over time.