Today was my consultation appointment with TRM and the first time I met Dr Scotchie. I’ve heard she’s “the doctor” to see – so, ok, I picked to talk to her. People who know me suggested I go talk to her specifically. They were right. Dr Scotchie was great.

Of course on the day of my appointment, which I’ve told everyone that would stand still about, I’m running late. Traffic jam on the freeway, zipping through downtown, sweat forming on the bridge of my nose under my sunglasses. I knew, in my logical mind, that it would be fine. I knew even if I had reschedule, it would be fine. But sitting at one of the unending red lights (before the gravel truck, before the school zone), I started to feel panicky, and realized how sad I would be if I had to reschedule for later. I was so excited to start this process.

I called the office, let them know I would be late, and zoomed in only 15 minutes before my appointment (I was supposed to be there an hour ahead to fill out paperwork). The lady at the front desk was nice, and the office waiting room was totally empty. She had me fill out some general paperwork. When you make your appointment, they send you to a web portal to fill out A LOT of things about yourself. So I was hoping most of the paperwork would just be signature stuff. It was, and it included a sheet that approved whether or not a medical student could follow Dr Scotchie into your appointment to learn and observe. Something about that struck me as pretty cool – I happily said yes. I like that they want to have students come and observe. Probably based on how personal the conversation was (not that the other things they do there aren’t pretty damn personal), there was no student involved this time.

I went into the exam room to get my weight, height, blood pressure, etc taken and talk to one of the nurses (staff? I dunno – she took my blood later, so she had to have SOME background). Then she took me to another room – like an office that was only used for 4 person meetings – and told me Dr Schotchie would be in to talk with me soon.

Up until I sat in that room, none of this had seemed like a big deal. It was all just this thing I was going to do. But sitting in that room and waiting, I suddenly felt very jittery. Not that I wasn’t making the right decision, but that I was making it NOW. Officially. Not a thing I was going to do later at some point maybe. N.O.W.