Explore "Merely the Patient" by Henry Howard Harper on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The next time I saw the doctor he handed me another batch of envelopes, which I apologetically declined. Having just come from a very disagreeable and seemingly unnecessary ordeal, for which I had waited several hours, I was in a state of hostile rebellion. It was like being repeatedly put on trial for crimes of which you are innocent; and I decided that as long as I could get no information whatever about my kidney, or indeed anything else, it were better to let the remainder of my organs rest as long as they were at ease.
"Doctor," said I, "I've already explained to you what my trouble is, and if you are putting me through these third degree maneuvers merely for the sake of killing time while the X-ray pictures are being developed, I prefer to choose some less heroic diversion. I'm not concealing any ailment from you and I don't care to waste any more of my time or yours hunting for something that seems to bother you more than it does me."