Childhood Naivety and the sick Doctor

As I might have mentioned in a previous post, I was due to see the GP this morning, and thought that it would be a good chance to do something productive and hand in my Health Form at reception and start the long winded process of getting the examination done. We aren't normally around the area when the practise is open because we work quite far away so this was a good opportunity I thought.

Anyway, obviously it didn't go to plan as usual and I received a voicemail at 9am this morning (20 minutes before the appointment) saying that the GP has called in sick today. So I rearranged for next week as it was nothing that can't wait and headed off to work, where I arrived 3 and half hours late. They knew I was going to be late, it can't be helped, everything is good, everyone's happy.

But.. Although this was what happened in reality. I was surprised by own reaction to the news that the GP was sick. In fact I'm still not quite over it.

 THE DOCTOR HAS CALLED IN SICK!!?? WHAT IS GOING ON!? HOW CAN A DOCTOR BE OFF SICK!? SHE'S THE DOCTOR, THEY DONT GET ILL, THEY MAKE YOU BETTER! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, MY DOCTOR IS... SICK! WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO WHEN THE DOCTOR IS SICK? WAIT UNTIL I TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THIS HAPPENING!! I WILL HAVE TO SAVE THE VOICEMAIL, OTHERWISE NO ONE WILL BELIEVE ME!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being completely naive, and I wasn't annoyed about losing the appointment or the waste of morning. The sensible part of me was thinking, Of course any person can get sick. Maybe a Doctor has more opportunities to catch horrible contagious illnesses off of snotty, rashy, pukey people. They're still human, with the same problems as the rest of us.

But, every now and then, the "Wow, the Doctor is sick" thought would come back. Which I could override with the sensible explaination. No one else seemed to be as surprised as I was about this, a few people even said "oh yeah that happened to me a while ago" like it was nothing unusual.

It was like fighting the truths of childhood naivety all over again at the age of 24. When things you thought could never happen, happend, or nice things you believed suddenly become not so nice. Of course as a child these include everything from death and illness to Santa and Tooth Fairies etc. But has anyone else had this again as an adult? Maybe it's just me...

Roxie