Visita dal Dottore

Doctor’s Visit

This morning Maurizio and I had scheduled an appointment to go to the Sports Medicine Doctor so that I could get my bill of health. In order to prepare for this visit we needed to take with us a few things, which included: My Codice Fiscale (like a SS number), my Carta d'identità (which proves my Italian residency), a passport size photo, and a urine sample! The receptionist told us that I had to bring with me my own urine sample and I needed to do it first thing in the morning before eating. In order to bring my own sample we had to go to la farmacia (the pharmacy) and purchase our own “cup”. Well, I expected this to be a cup but in fact when we bought them (2 just in case) they were the size of a test tube!!!! I don’t know about you all but I have a hard enough time filling a normal size cup without peeing on myself and I don’t have the luxury of being a man and being able to “point and shoot”. Seeing this test tube made me burst into laughter. I called my sister and brother in law right away to tell them about it, they didn’t believe me and we had to take our conversation to Ichat so they could actually SEE this sample tube. It still doesn’t make sense to me because I think they have to test my urine for drugs and other things. I could have had anyone pee in that test tube. The next fun thing I thought about and that my sister pointed out was that I would have to tote that urine all the way across town.

here is a sample of an identity card and SS#, i don't want to give my numbers out:


Here is a picture of the test tube I had to fill and take with me to the doctor:




Well, across town this morning happened to be over 1 hour!!! We had to travel to Scandicci, which is outside Florence, and since we don’t have a car we had to take the bus. The bus, probably because it was a peak time at 10am, was so stuffed we could hardly move. We were packed in like Sardines. This is when the trip started to take shape. There was one particular Italian lady who was on the bus that had absolutely no patience. Her lack of patience started by acting out at Maurizio. He was wearing a backpack carrying all the documents (and the pee), and it accidently touched her. Well, this action just set her off and she started screaming at him for having a backpack. He told her he was sorry and that next time he would leave it at home (in a smartass kind of way). There was a comedian on the bus and he began laughing at this. The comedian then proceeded to jokingly argue with the lady and tell her, in a nice and funny way, if she couldn’t have more patience that she should stay at home. This lady just continued for over ½ hour of our trip. Where there was one comedian started 2 or three more and they were all laughing at her lack of patience bringing up the backpack again saying that they would throw it in the Arno (the river) if it would please her. It was seriously hysterical the things they were saying and she just continued complaining, complaining about the traffic, complaining about how many people there were, and complaining that there weren’t enough buses on the schedule. Finally, as everyone applauded, she got off at her stop.

A typical bus in florence


When we finally arrived at our stop we still had to climb up a hill and 20 minutes later we arrived at the medical center and my heartbeat was already elevated and I was wet with sweat. They had told me to wear sportive clothes so I was wearing some yoga pants, tennis shoes, and a tank with a built in sport bra. MISTAKE!!!! When I got into the doctors office he told me to strip naked. This seemed strange as I thought I was going to have to perform some king of workout so I hesitated and he just told me again to take my clothes off. So, I took off my yoga pants and was standing there in my white underwear (I wish I had worn a dark color, they were completely see through), white socks, and a sports top. Then he told me to take my top off, I started to take it off when he saw that it was attached and thankfully he didn’t make me stand there topless.

First he made me lie down and I had to pull my top up to where the bra started and he checked my breathing and heartbeat. Then he told me to relax and told Maurizio to make sure I was relaxing because he could see I was all sweaty and he took his finger and wiped sweat off from between my breasts and showed Maurizio!!! Okay…embarrassing. We told him that we had just run up there because we were also running late after all the bus issues.

After this, he made me stand by this step; it was pretty tall about 2 ft. or more off the ground. He proceeded in putting all these wires and round sticky pads on my chest. I was still standing in my underwear and now my shirt was almost completely off, making room for all the stickers and wires. Then I had to step up and down on the step for 2 minutes while he monitored my heart rate. It was completely uncomfortable doing this in my underwear and with my sport bra just barely covering my nipples! The step was high enough that I had to literally hike me foot up in order to stand up and down on it. I felt completely exposed. After the two minutes I guess I had impressed him because my heart rate never rose above 150 and I guess usually it should. However, he said my heart had problems recovering and that in order to build it up I needed to incorporate more sprints and bursts into my training. It all made sense.

After this he allowed me to remove all the sticker and wires and to put my shirt down, then I had to lie back on the table and he checked that my right leg is longer than my left one. He told me that I needed to wear a heel lift when I am running in my right shoe to prevent my tendons from becoming inflamed. This made total sense because he told me where the pain would be and that’s exactly where I have been hurting, in my right hip and outer knee. He said because my right leg was longer and because my right knee turned inward a bit that it would cause the tendon to inflame. I might just have to follow up on this advice.

Finally, I was able to put my pants back on and the exam was finished. He told me I did great and that I was strong but also told me which areas I needed to work on. Even though I felt the exam to be a bit awkward, all in all he was a nice doctor and a bit of a comedian himself. It was definitely an interesting experience of Italy to add to the list. Now I can officially register for my half marathon! Wish me luck!!!