Hump Day at Planned Parenthood

Hope that caught your attention! 😬😜

There's a lot of noise out there at the moment. So I felt a little blessed to spend yesterday, Wednesday... (Hump Day), sitting for hours with a book in the waiting room of Planned Parenthood, NYC.

(And yes, for those of you following the blog, you are thoroughly confused right now about my space-time continuum. Just hang on! It's gonna be a bumpy ride!)

Before you panic and refuse to read further - I was there because I needed female preventative healthcare. A routine check-up.

You know... pesky things like cancer screenings.

And I am new to New York and have no local doctors. So when I started searching for a gynecologist, I started checking out reviews online, and asking people... But I kept circling back to the energy around Planned Parenthood. And I decided that THAT was where I wanted to go for my check up.

Why? Well... easy. Because just donating to their cause is not enough. I wanted to support these incredibly busy/hardworking doctors by being a patient. Because some of the BEST women's healthcare experiences I have had my whole life has been through Planned Parenthood. The staff are experts, and more than that, they are friendly.

That has been my experience since I was a teenager sitting in their waiting room back in California - scared, nervous, unsure, and totally freaked. And they made feel normal, like I was doing something that I should be doing to take care charge of myself and my health at a time when peer pressure seemed more logical than reason.

And when I was a very poor college student, they did the same. They didn't judge, they didn't lecture. They presented facts, and let me choose how I wanted to be healthy.

I'll admit I was a bit nervous yesterday. It had been a while. I had been living in Europe, where women my age only do pap smears once every 5 years. And so with my family's.... hmmmm... proclivity to cancer... well... I was nervous.

And I'll admit with what's happening in the news, part of me thought, wow,... is it SAFE to go to this office?

There was more security than at the airport. With friendlier staff. It made me sad that one has to empty pockets and go through metal detectors to get to see a doctor. And I was there because I CHOSE to be.

The non-patient waiting room was packed. It made me pause. A room full of people - but because they are not the patients, they were not allowed to enter further into the 'compound.'

I was allowed through the next layer of doors and that was full too. I waited for hours. Don't take that as a criticism. Most of the doctor's offices I researched had that as an issue. Why....? Too many patients. Not enough doctors. Not enough resources.

Taking it as a chance to breathe, escape from work, and read a book... I sat. I read. I watched people.

Men and women. Students. Middle-aged. Well heeled. Not so well heeled. Nervous. Embarrassed. Uncertain. Annoyed. Tired. Stressed. Humans.

The staff was efficient, friendly, and had too much to do. The doctor who finally called me into the examination room was kind, funny, personable. She made me feel WAY less uncomfortable with the fact that I had only a paper gown open to the front to 'shield' me. And when her routine questions about family medical history revealed that my mother had had cancer, my father had had cancer, and my sister has cancer... she was kind, and gentle. And made sure to put me at ease as much as she could.

Would I go back? Absolutely! Why not?

A good doctor, is hard to find.

So why did I share this? Because when I looked at the faces in that waiting room, I knew I had to.

Words have power. Use them kindly.