Doctor No. 2: No Way

So we went to see this other doctor about preparing for and scheduling a hip replacement; and the upshot of it is, we don’t want to see him anymore. He can take his slimy fast talk somewhere else.

Oh, he’ll do the operation, all right–as long as the patient is as healthy as a horse and very unlikely to die on him. But if he were to do mine, I would have to go through a whole carnival of medical procedures by another big top full of doctors. So if anything does go wrong with this 76-year-old patient, chances are good that it’ll be on some other doctor’s watch.

(“No, you can only have this surgery if you’re otherwise in perfect health.”)

I don’t want to die. And I certainly don’t want to be in agony from a broken hip for the rest of my life.

I want to live. Just to spite him.