Stress test

I’m very close to my grandfather (Granddaddy if you’re southern like me), and I’ve learned that he has no patience.

Especially for things he doesn’t care to understand — like instructions from doctors. So I pick up the slack and translate the medial jargon for him instead.

Like today, when he was grumbling about a procedure his doctor signed him up for.

“I get a pain in my temple maybe once a month, but it’s not anything to worry about.” he told me over breakfast, “I wished I’d never mentioned it to him. I don’t want to go if there’s no reason for it.”

I’m sure his doctor already explained the reasoning, but still I asked, “Did he say what the test was for?”

“He must have, but I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying.”

So I called the medical center.

I listened carefully to the technician answering my questions, and did what I do best as a copywriter — deliver the message exactly in the way he needed to hear it.

“It’s a stress test. They want to make sure you don’t have a blockage in your heart.”

“Well, why didn’t he say that?”

He did, just not very well or in a way that would resonate with my Granddaddy.

Maybe doctors should learn about copywriting, then they would understand that the right message and words can literally be a lifesaver.