It's called white coat syndrome.
And for those that haven't come across it, it's when people's blood pressure changes considerably (usually in an upwards direction) when it is taken by a person in a white coat -- aka at a doctor's surgery.
It is used to explain these abnormal spikes in blood pressure for no otherwise known reason.
I use this as an example only. My blood pressure, as it turns out, is usually on the low side and on those occasions when it spikes, a very happy doctor will always tell me that it is absolutely perfect, the rise putting it right in the normal range.
I may not suffer from the traditional white coat syndrome but I do suffer the same phenomenon in other areas.
Take the day you go to the hairdresser for example. You may have looked like Cousin It for the past few weeks and so you make the call. But without fail on that day when you plonk yourself in the hairdresser's chair, your hair has never looked better. What is is with that?
My IT go-to-guy tells me the same thing. Apparently all computer problems can be immediately fixed just by making time to see him. Suddenly all of those mysterious, unexplained quirks of the system become magically fixed at that appointment time, only to re-appear once the window of time to fix them has elapsed.
I even felt like that when I had my first baby. I had been in labour for about six hours when I went to hospital. I did look a bit like a beach ball with sticks for arms and legs and I was only one day early, but I felt fraudulent as soon as I arrived. Because at that moment, everything stopped and I got to spend 40 minutes or so without agonising pain, just enough time to look at them beseechingly and plead your case that this really was the real deal.
I could probably dream up many more examples, but I have found a solution and one that needs immediate attention, particularly when heading to a doctor or hairdresser.
I think the best answer to this white coat thing, is for everyone to wear red. We usually see red at these times anyway.
