My endocrinologist retired and before he left, recommended the Sweet Young Thing coming in as his replacement.

Today I saw Dr. SYT to get acquainted and go over a little medical history.

I did quite a bit of knitting as I waited in the exam room, picturing her stuck skimming through that little encyclopedia.

We talked bone densities and past steroid doses for Crohn’s and the fact that I have autoantibodies for hyper- and hypo- thyroidism and what was showing low right now (oh it is? Wasn’t, last time they checked.)

Tell me, she said: Do you feel cold all the time?

I so did not expect that. It was all I could do not to burst into laughter so loud the nurses might come running in to see what was wrong. Oh honey, asthma-attack-force guffawing if I let it escape. Oh. My. Goodness. !!! I pictured the floor-to-ceiling windows all over my house, the silk t under a silk-blend nightshirt under how many layers of blankets, including wool, and not my usual one but two handknit wool hats on for a few nights there and loose wool socks on my feet and still not being able to fall asleep for hours for the deep chill till I finally rebelled and said, Dude. Our utility bills right now are a quarter what they used to be. Can we PLEASE turn up the heat?!

Sure, no problem! It hadn’t occurred to him. It was cold?