noted on Mon, 08 Sep 2003
Ah! Well, That's Very Different, Then
A month or two ago, we gave our daughter a present. It was a black doctor’s bag with lots of plastic toy doctor tools - stethoscope, blood pressure taker thingy (tell me what they’re called!), thermometer, reflex hammer, magnifying lens for ear/eye, scalpel, bandages, the works. It’s pretty cool.
She took to this toy like a duck to water, and loved to play doctor with us. She’ll also get us to play the doctor, probably because she wants a clue on how it’s done. Ever sensitive to the doctor-patient relationship, she always tells us that the tests she has to do won’t hurt, and that she’ll make it better.
One time, I was the patient, and I said I had a boo-boo on my arm, could she please fix it. So she goes through the battery of tests, most having nothing to do with diagnosing or fixing the problem I said I had, and decides that surgery on my leg is in order. So she gets out the scalpel and proceeds to start ‘cutting’ into me.
Reacting like any sane patient would, I cried out, “No! No! I don’t need surgery! Don’t cut into me!” To which she replied, “No, daddy! No hurt! Look: no point!” And indeed, the scalpel she had didn’t come to a point, but was rounded off.