DoctorMaryKatherineMurphy

"Although she's straight, she's Catholic and very nice." said my primary physician, lesbian Dr. Kaufold, about the surgeon who she was referring me to who would do my mastectomy.
"Well I used to be straight and Catholic." I replied.
Dr. Kaufold was right, DrMaryKatherineMurphy (we say her name just like it is written, it makes much more sense that way) was very nice. She was also very scattered and disorganized appearing to be much like a modern day version of a nurturing absent minded healer who makes potions for whatever ailment is brought to her by the townspeople.
Dr. Kaufhold said that DrMaryKatherineMurphy would be staying late that night, a Friday, in order to see me and gave us her cell phone number as well. Unfortunately, something came up for the doctor and she conducted a verbal assesment over the phone. The call lasted over an hour and covered everything from my medical history to Sheri's recent illness, our dogs, my high school softball years and belly button lint.
By the time Sheri and I made it to her crowded office the first time for a biopsy we figured we were in for a wait due to her style.
An hour and a half later she breezed in from surgery and started seeing patients who were waiting in the waiting room. It seemed that she was worth the wait. After a while we were led into a room where instead of the usual doctor's room table, there was a low leather bench with no arms or back. DrMaryKatherineMurphy asked some follow up questions, talked about our dogs, then instructed me to lay down on the bench. Sheri would kneel at my head stroking my hair and she would perch like a bird near my shoulder to take a biopsy of the breast which by now was beginning to hurt.
The good doctor was not the organized type, nor was she the type of person who was organized in clutter. No she was disorganized in disorganization. Drawers were overstuffed with supplies and she dug through them throwing everything that she didn't need over her shoulder until she found the item that she was looking for, usually at the bottom of the drawer.
Whenever she stepped out of the room to look for something Sheri and I would crack up under our breath at this woman!
Once all the supplies were gathered, the biopsy began. The site on my breast above the tumor was numbed and a large needle was inserted. DrMaryKatherineMurphy sucked up fragments of the tumor and put it into a test tube to send to the lab. Since part of the tumor was on the outside in the form of a rash, she biopsied the skin using what looked to Sheri like a hole punch. I could see Sheri's eyes get real big like a kid who had just seen a fire truck drive by with lights flashing and siren whaling as a sample of my skin was taken and put in solution for testing. "Whoa, that was cool!" she said. I just rolled my eyes at her "Seriously?"
As Dr. Murphy worked through the procedure, she tossed the gauze used to sop up blood onto a sterile mat that she had layed on the floor. Amidst the bloody gauze, used syringes, test tubes and other surgical material were the Dr.'s keys and her cell phone. As she was cleaning up, she looked at Sheri's neck bandage covering the hole in her trachea from when she was on the ventilator while she was sick with pneumonia. "Now, let's have a look at that." Sheri was on a different insurance plan that did not include the good doctor and there was a waiting room full of people that had been waiting for a long time, yet there she was fixing the dressing on my lady love's throat.
Strangely, I was and am comforted by DrMaryKatherineMurphy.