Tower Of Babel

Good morning to all. Well, today is Friday which is always something to smile about as it heralds the beginning of the weekend. In my case, however, I’m on call as of 8A.M. today until 8A.M. on Monday. Hence, if there are any eventualities in my speciality, a me dat ( I am the one responsible) until Monday. Hopefully, the pager will not be going crazy. Which brings me to the topic for today.

The pager is that little electronic device that helps keep doctors and other professionals who ‘take call’ in touch with their work base, in my case the hospital. It has an inherent tendency to go off at the most inconvenient times, I won’t bother to bore you all with the actual details. Though they can evoke some rather foul responses by their owners when they go off, especially in the wee hours of the morning, I think that overall they are useful.

The cellular telephone is also another very useful device which has certainly taken off in Jamaica. Believe me, every puss and dog (just about everyone) in this country is sporting a cellular. It is not until recently that I discovered that my household helper has one. Though they are useful and convenient to have, there are some individuals who seem oblivious to the fact that they can be very annoying to others to hear them ring particularly in certain situations. I for one, make sure that mine is off whenever I am on Ward rounds and in certain other situations.

I was attending the funeral of a friend’s father last year and a woman who was seated in the church in front of me started digging frantically in her handbag as her cell started ringing. Naturally, many people in the immediate vicinity started to look at her expecting that she would turn it off. No such luck, she answers the phone and has her conversation.

For me. I think the case that won the first prize follows. I don’t think I have ever shared this one before. About two years ago I was was doing some General Practice. A young lady came to see me on account of a vaginal discharge. I asked her to go up on the examination couch so that I could give her a digital examination with which she had no problem. In the middle of my doing the vaginal examination, her cell rings and I eagerly watch to see if she is going to answer it and to my shock she does. Please, a strange man has his gloved index and first finger probing around in your most private body part and you think that this is an appropriate time to take a call on your cell phone??? I did nothing, completed the examination and asked her to come down off the couch and get dresssed.

What did we do before cell phones had come into being? We all survived didn’t we? As I said before, they do have their place but in certain situations please, turn them off as a mark of respect and courtesy to others. Anyhow, that is my mouthful for the morning. Hopefully the pager will behave like a mouse (silent) over the coming weekend, but if not, I’ll just do what is necessary. Have a nice day today and I will look out for some comments. I’m sure you all have some cell phone anecdotes that are worthy of sharing. Until next time,the Doctor is OUT!!!!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 26th, 2002 at 8:14 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.