From the collection Enough For a Book, 2016.
At Odds
I overheard this at the gym.
She said
the doctor told her husband
that he had a rash
her husband
not the doctor
that’s all
and there were two kinds of cream
that could do the trick and
get rid of it and there was no difference
between them and he could choose
her husband
not the doctor
What
Flip a coin? he said
her husband
not the doctor
and there they sat
at an impasse
for lack of a quarter
never mind what happened
to the idea of a doctor giving medical advice
until the nurse announced the next patient
who did have a quarter
and they settled the question
and life went on. The end.
2/17/16
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
So much like life. I am always making decisions by coin flip myself. (K)
I use eeny meeny. But I sure hope my doctor isn’t. Even though I think sometimes they are close to it.
Life is a mystery to doctors too.
Yes, and if only more of them would admit it.
Some do, some don’t. I always try to find the ones that do.
I make it part of my doctor choosing decision process now, when in the past, I never thought about it, but getting older and having more things go wrong, it is very important now.
This makes me think of some visits to the doctor. “Hi, how are you? See you next time.” From both of us.
Yes, and I hope that the see you next time is a nice casual type of thing, and not…with a sense of forebodingness.
I have had many visits to a doctor where I have wondered if they are just doing a mental coin toss in determining what diagnosis to give or what treatment to prescribe.
I hate to say it but I feel sure it’s been that way in some visits I’ve had and not for just trivial things either. You have to stay on top of health visits just like the plumber or anything else, I have learned.
In an age of medical industry with medical cards, the doctor wished me “good morning”, “good evening”, without even touching me, and charged his consultation in each trip down the wards.
This reminds me of when I broke my elbow some years back and on the various checkup visits the doctor looked at the xrays and did not look at my arm.
Doctors often forget about the meaning of attending.
Yes. That is a perfect way to put it.