Hi, Daryl!  Recently you wrote in a message to ARDITH HINTON:

 DS>  Santa didn't stop here. He was going to "save the best
 DS>  for last" (my house). However, I sent him a card with
 DS>  the words "Define Naughty". 

 DS>  Apparently, he had "heard I'd been good"...but then saw
 DS>  that card, and he died laughing. 


             Hmm.  At least he made it to our place first... [chuckle].



 DS>  I have had one health present...with eating only 1 meal a
 DS>  day for the last several weeks, I've lost nearly 50 pounds.


             Glad to hear that's working for you.  It didn't work for a guy we
knew years ago... but then he'd eat three meals' worth of food at dinner.  :-Q



 DS>  My mother-in-law quipped that "you get to show your
 DS>  butt, and have it rubbed"...to which I said "nudity
 DS>  means nothing to them"...although a friend of mine will
 DS>  NOT go to the doctor, as "he doesn't want them to see him
 DS>  naked". I couldn't convince him that "it's not anything
 DS>  they haven't seen before".


             I agree with you.  My grandmother used to worry that the hospital
staff would make fun of her underwear (or something) if she got involved in an
accident when she was away from home & hadn't "dressed up".  However, it seems
the majority of accidents occur at home... and I reckon the doctors & nurses I
know are focusing on their work.  When I went to the emergency ward at 3:00 AM
wearing a tired old bathrobe I got a strange look from the first person I met.
But I was hemorrhaging, and she didn't offer to help me do the laundry.  Blood
stains can be difficult to remove, as anybody who's watched CSI knows....  :-)



 DS>  Besides, if you're female in labor, you have to forget
 DS>  all modesty. I've yet to hear of a boy coming out in a
 DS>  nice tuxedo, or a girl in a satin white dress. :P


             AFAIK babies don't care who sees them au naturel, and a woman who
is about to give birth has other priorities too... [grin].

             I've seen girls at the oncology clinic wearing party dresses with
frills which I suspect took quite a lot of ironing.  But I imagine they did it
for the same reason the boys wore baseball caps backwards.  Some folks seem to
be out of their depth when they're not sure what gender a person is, and a kid
with no hair may feel... or their parents may feel... a need to exaggerate the
other signals commonly used to help put such individuals at ease.  The mothers
of these girls almost invariably panicked, however, when their daughters threw
up.  It often seemed to me that the dresses got more attention than the humans
who were wearing them.  Our daughter wore simple clothing which didn't require
much upkeep & which could easily be replaced, at little or no cost to us, with
hand-me-downs from a charity resale shop or from a friend with two older boys.

             That's one of many reasons I'd suggest people not wear their best
clothes if they're expecting to undergo some medical/surgical procedure.  I am
also reminded here of an occasion when my mother was in hospital, and her room
mate was clearly upset about something.  My mother informed me that this woman
... who was scheduled for surgery the same day... had spent an hour putting on
makeup & painting her nails, only to be told by a nurse that she would have to
remove the lot.  Then she complained to my mother, but didn't like the answer.
Apparently my mother said something along the lines of "With all that stuff on
how will the doctor know if you're turning blue?"  Now you know where I get it
from.  My chances of being the most glamorous female in the morgue are slim to
zilch... but my parents survived to a ripe old age & I learned from them.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)