Navonim - The Ramblings of Garnel Ironheart

Navonim - The Ramblings of Garnel Ironheart
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Sunday 26 October 2008

Mistaken Identity

About a year ago I attended rounds at my local hospital. The rounds are lectures on one subject or another and generally a dru company sponsors some snacks and coffee at the back of the room. As I enter, a drug rep I've seen a couple of times before but was not really familiar with approached me with a big smile and told me that she'd tried to come to my office a couple of weeks earlier to drop off some samples but had missed me because I'd been on vacation.
First problem: I hadn't been on vacation.
But then I thought about it. It was about four weeks after Sukkos so she had probably come during the Yom Tov when I was off and thought I was on vacation because of that.
Then she started telling me about how during that visit she spoke with my nurse Gloria about a new initiative her company was thinking about doing and that Gloria had been really interested.
Second problem: My nurse's name isn't Gloria.
So I held up my hand and stopped her in mid-sentence with a simple question to clarify the matter: What's my name?
There was a pause as she blushed and blurted out: Oh, Dr. Ironheart.
Then came my next question: And who did you think I was?
She smiled and answered: Dr JO. (He's an allergist, I'm a family/emergency doctor)
Now, to paint the picture for you, Dr. JO is a handsome guy, very well-dressed and always has a huge smile on his face. He also has thinning hair on his scalp and is clean shaven. I am, to be generous, unattractive, wear off-the-rack cheap suits from Moores, and use a frown as the default expression on my face. Baruch HaShem, there's still hair on my head (at least the part that isn't hidden under my large serugah) and I have a short, greying beard. In other words, I look nothing like him except that we both wear kippot in public.
So I thought about it for a moment and realized: We really all do look alike to them, don't we!
Now I would have left it at that but today I was at the hospital and a nurse came up to me to ask me if I do allergy testing in my clinic. I didn't think about why she'd ask at first and simply asnwered no. Then I asked her why. Her answer was soooo reassuring: She'd been at a different local hospital (the one Dr JO works out of) and was sure she'd seen me doing allergy testing there.
All I can say is that I hope they think I look like him and not vice versa!

1 comment:

The Reish Galuta of the Geula said...

You're far more entertaining than JO :)