'Bare' minimum!

Visiting a doctor is never a happy occasion. However, as I am discovering now, it still provides healthy fodder for writing and learning!

 E.g., I just discovered that when you visit your doctor for any complaint, you could be subject to any level of investigation. And therefore, you should always go as if you are going to work, or to visit a friend- basically; neat, clean and dressed appropriately. Whether the doctor decides to do an ECG for you, or a session of physiotherapy, or just a physical check-up, you do not want that nurse to think you do not take care of yourself or that you do not practice hygiene. (Read- wax, wax, wax!!!!, or deo, deo deo!!!!- as the case may be!).
 I once asked the friendly physiotherapist at the clinic what she thought about all the different forms of flesh that she treated day in and day out (i thought 'forms of flesh' was more impersonal than 'bodies'). She told me that it does not even matter to her. When she sees a patient, she sees the muscles and the tendons and exercises that will help those muscles and tendons and nothing else. That was good to know!
I guess it is the same thing with doctors and the nurses then. They see so many bodies in some kind of physical pain or the other, day in and day out, that it does not matter to them whether you are beautiful or ugly, man or woman, young or old, black or white, taut or wrinkled.....
I think it is in our minds- because thankfully, we do not see doctors or nurses or therapists or radiology technicians every day. There is a certain hesitation to have to bare, however minimum it may be,  in front of a stranger, even if that stranger is of the same sex as you are, and even if that stranger is treating you for your health  problems!  And so, it is a comfort to know that they do not judge us by the shape we are in, or the make-up we are not wearing or the waxing appointment we could not make to.
Living here, it is a privilege to be able to ask for a female doctor or technician. Even when there is no choice, it is mandatory that a female staff be present when the doctor is examining you. That makes things easier for sure. However, experience tells me that when you look at the doctor as the doctor, and not as a man or woman, you will feel more at ease and less conscious. The rule to stay clean,  and look clean is still applicable though, for your own conscious self!