Eavesdropping in New York — №2: Overheard in the Colonoscopy Prep Room
A little while ago I wrote a piece about a conversation I overheard at a Manhattan restaurant between a couple of septuagenarian doctors with personal reflections on the medical care of Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor. At the end I paraphrased Yogi Berra’s famous saying that “You can observe a lot just by watching.” My twist was that you can observe a lot just by listening.”
I overhear a lot of interesting things. Eavesdropping may not be polite, but how does anyone close their ears when there are fascinating things being said around them? In my case, because it seems futile to even try, I’ve decided to turn my bad habit into a series called “Eavesdropping in New York.” Welcome to Episode №2.
***
The pretty young blonde nurse left me alone in a colonoscopy prep tent at Lenox Health in Greenwich Village. She’d given me instructions to remove all my clothes, put them in the plastic bags she’d provided, and put on one of those cotton backless hospital gowns.
I’d dutifully complied and lay comfortably on a gurney, taking a few deep breaths to calm myself for the imminent invasion of my large intestine. But before that, the pretty young blonde nurse returned to ask me a few questions: Name, date of birth, medications, allergies, etc.
