My house mate’s mother is a massive Rolling Stones fan. She stayed with us recently when she came over to London to go to one of their gigs and somehow in discussion we got on to the topic of doctors and my squeamishness at having anything done to me. She told me that when she has to visit the doctor to have anything painful done, she squeezes her eyes shut and imagines Mick Jagger coming on to stage and she plays their concert in her mind.
I avoid doctors whenever possible.
A few weeks back I received a letter from the local doctor I’d tried to register with a year and a half ago but for various reasons never got around to actually visiting. The letter said that if I didn’t contact them within a week then they’d take me off their list (I’d had various letters since my attempted registration to coax me in to visiting, but without real need to visit I ignored them). Best go along and see them then to save the hassle of maybe having a doctor further than 4 minutes walk away (kooshy I know).
After a basic chat, she decided I should have my blood tested. Memories of a 10 year old me cowering and wailing behind a chair in a doctor’s surgery when I was meant to be having a blood test came back to me. Never mind the fact that since then I had had a couple of blood tests and dealt with them fairly well, the horrible memories are always the quickest to surface.
I went outside for a quick breath of fresh air to try and calm myself and then went through to the blood testing section. There was quite a few people in queue but somehow my number was called within a few minutes of worry.
I sat down and said “I’m a little nervous about these things” but she already had the tourniquet wrapped round my arm and said “You’ve got a great vein here.” I shut my eyes as she said “See, it’s in already” and then the advice came back to me. I squeezed my eyes shut as hard as possible and imagined Freeheat coming on stage and Jim singing with Ben and Romi backing him up with “(Aaalright) (1974) (Aaalright) (1974) 4 4 1974 (aaalright), 4 4 1974 (aaalright)” and then a woman’s voice cut in saying “It’s done!”.