I Can See You

Today I had to go to my local hospital for a mammogram and ultrasound.  It was followup from six months ago - well, a little over six months ago because I was slow in scheduling it - when my routing screening mammogram found something suspicious.  They did a diagnostic mammogram and then an ultrasound of one breast at that time, said they thought it was just a cyst, and recommended repeating the tests in six months.  So that was today.

So one interesting thing is that I was not particularly anxious about having the procedures done.  I am so much less anxious about medical stuff these days.  At least some medical stuff.  But just six months ago, I had to get a friend to go with me because I was too anxious to go alone.  So that's awesome.  There are still some medical things I would be very anxious about but this was OK.

The thing I wanted to blog about, though, was when the radiologist came into the room to do the ultrasound and then discuss the results with me.  He took one look at my service dog and asked me if I was blind.

I said, "No, I can see you."

He said, "Oh, yes, of course.  Are you training him for a blind person then?"

Shouldn't a doctor know if a patient is blind before walking into the room?  And if he didn't know, like if he hadn't read my chart and the ultrasound tech hadn't bothered to mention it, shouldn't he be observant enough to notice I was making eye contact with him while speaking to him?