When not focusing on trying to conceive, among other things, I'm a gamer. Specifically, I play Guild Wars, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (or MMORPG). In quintessentially geeky fashion, we -- and by "we" I mean all gamers, I'm pretty sure it's not limited to just GW players -- often talk in code, with liberal use of insider slang, abbreviations and acronyms. We call it "'leet speak", or for the truly elite (hence 'leet) gamers, "1337 speak" (kind of like when you'd use a calculator to spell "HELLO" upside down with numbers - I told you it was geeky).
Well, apparently, there is also "'leet speak" in the (Usually) Dual-Player In-bed Role-Playing (if-that-sort-of-thing-works-for-you) Game that is TTC, and I got called out using it today... on the phone with the doctor's office.
My ob/gyn (Dr. K) recommended a fertility doctor (Dr. C) to me at my last visit a couple of weeks ago. So, this afternoon, on a whim (mostly because I was getting impatient waiting for my CD3 results), I picked up the phone and called Dr. C's number.
Receptionist: Doctor's office, may I help you?
Me: Hi, I'm a patient of Dr. K, and she suggested I give you a call. I'd like to make an appointment to see the RE.
[pause]
Receptionist: Well the doctors here specialize in helping people who are trying to conceive...
[pause, with crickets]
Me: um... oh, I'm sorry (???), I have a tendency to shorten things... yes, my gynecologist wants me to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist. That's what I meant by an 'R.E.' She wants me to see Dr. C."
After that awkwardness, things proceeded swimmingly. She took down my name and number, and told me that I'd either hear back from the coordinator/scheduler-type person within the next twenty minutes or first thing tomorrow morning. Nothing yet, so we'll see.
Okay, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she didn't hear me correctly. Honestly, though, I guess I was surprised that the folks (or this particular folk) at the doctor's office aren't more hip to the lingo.
Trying to conceive can seem like a game sometimes: you start out as a "noob" with Cycle 1 and "level up" (Cycles 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.), learn new skills (in the bedroom - *ahem* - and bathroom), acquire weapons that increase in power (thermometers and charts, pee sticks, OPK's, fertility monitors), go on quests (trips to doctors' offices, labs, drug stores), and, of course, battle monsters (mental as well as medical). And, hanging out on topic-specific message boards (like hanging out in towns reading chat in the MMORPG) can let you "level up" faster, at least in knowledge, if not necessarily in experience. So, while I have been only at this TTC thing for a few months, and had thought I was pretty noobish in comparison to other more seasoned members on the boards, I realized today that I've been soaking up a TON of info, and am, perhaps, more 1337 than I thought.
So I guess I gotta remember that not everyone hangs out on message boards, and that I'll have to turn my geek off sometimes. :P
Hehe... It doesn't get any easier. Both my parents, who are fairly well-versed in medical terminology, don't know half of what I'm saying when I refer to DS.
ReplyDeleteps. This is Stever.
Hey Stever! Ah well, it's kind of its own language, isn't it? It's just so easy to forget you're speaking it! :)
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