Comfortably Numb

I spent six hours at the dentist's office today. No, a very small percentage of that was waiting. If you count travel times, it's closer to eight hours.

Oddly enough, it was a lot more painless than I'd imagined. It was very nice to hear that it's going to be painless after a point, and then have it actually be true. Plus, I got to hear the soothing voice of James Earl Jones for a while.

Doctor's Office

I get nervous about the doctor's office. Or the dentist's, or sometimes even the emergency room/waiting room at the hospital. I don't think it's something about the waiting room though, as it didn't happen when I went for an eye exam, or in the waiting room for a psychiatrist, which are very similar situations.

I'm not sure why it is. I haven't really had bad experiences at the doctor's, or the dentist's. And while I have had bad experiences at the hospital, it was the particular affliction I was there for that was the bad experience, not the environment. One guess I have is that maybe I'm visualizing or empathizing the pain of other patients, or imagined patients. Or maybe I'm nervous that it's going to be me that has horrible problems, rather than the usual check-up in the office which says everything is ok.

In any case, I am nervous, I'm going in to the dentist's office again tomorrow.