I need a muffler...and a little more sense

If I were a car, I wouldn't pass a safety inspection. In fact I would get a ticket for a noisy muffler. Like a car, I have an exhaust system...and like a car it gets loud when it has a malfunction. My exhaust system (airway) tends to malfunction a bit when I exhale. As a result I go around sounding like Darth Vader.  This isn't all bad. When I'm shopping and standing in the check out lane, people tend to allow me to move up in line. (I'm not sure if it's kindness ..or if they're afraid I'm contagious.  Nahh, I prefer to think it's kindness. ) Whatever the reason, I'm grateful for their consideration.  One of the downsides is that everytime I'm in a medical facility, staff that aren't familiar with me tend to panic a bit. For example, I went to the cashiers office to pay my coinsurance for my CT scan at the local hospital. (I like to pay in person so that I have a receipt in my hands...and it gives me something to do. ) Well,while I'm at the window I was huffing, puffing and coughing as usual and the next thing I know, an orderly with a wheelchair shows up. It turns out that the other clerk ,who wasn't at the window, heard me and  had called for one... and they wanted me to go to the ER. I assured them that I was OK. They were skeptical but I left quickly, ending the debate. On another occasion, I went to the clinic to have my foot looked at. (It turns out to have been a mild bout of gout). Before they would even look at the foot , they checked out my lungs and my breathing. (I kept telling them "It's my foot that hurts!")  The reason I mention this is that it happened again recently. My wife is an oncall chaplain for three hospitals in our area. She had gone to work at 9:15 pm the other night. Once in the Pastoral Care Office, she discovered that she had forgotten her pager. She called home and asked me to bring it to her. I dutifully got dressed and drove to the hospital with the pager. I had hurried since there was some urgency for her. Well, it was after hours so I had to go in through the emergency room and ask the triage nurse to call for her in Pastoral Care. (We would have paged her... but then we had her pager didn't we?...I know, I know...GROAN!).  It had gotten very cold and the combination of the cold air and the rushing around had me sounding pretty bad. They called her for me and while waiting asked me if I was OK. I told them that I was. They generously (or so I thought) gave me a seat by the desk to wait for her. Well, I was sitting with my head back and before I knew it , the nurse had quickly (and sneakily)put the oximeter on my finger. Even though my O2 level was over 90, they still weren't satisfied until I took two puffs from my inhaler.  (Actually I did feel a lot better after the inhaler...asthma can be sneaky! I guess they might know best after all.)   To be honest, I'm grateful that they were so diligent. It would have been easy just to let me go my merry way. They may have saved me from a bad attack.  I didn't recognize that things were getting worse. They did ...and saved me from my hard headed self. Maybe I should listen more to the medical staff and not be so smug about knowing my body better than them. (Do you think that maybe I might not know best?...Naaa, that can't be it. )  I do know that I'm going to be more careful...and next time I'll have my wife meet me in the parking lot! Be well,Tom p.s.I called and commended the ER staff to the ER administrator the next day. They have a tough job and they do it well. Tom