Scrubs

The days, thank God, are finally getting warmer. The daily temperatures now regularly reach the 80s. I’ve written here several times about how I adjusted to warm weather during my years “in-country” (in Vietnam) and never readjusted after my return to “the world” (the U.S.). For me, the best time of year is the summer when I can wear scrubs.

Scrubs are a uniform (shirt and pants) originally known as “surgical greens” (because they were always green in color) but came to be called scrubs because they were always worn in a scrubbed, i.e., surgically clean, environment. According to Wikipedia, “scrubs is the name for the sanitary clothing worn by physicians, nurses, dentists and other workers involved in patient care. Originally designed for use by surgeons and other operating room personnel, who would put them on when sterilizing themselves, or ‘scrubbing in’, before surgery, they are now worn by many hospital personnel.”

I started wearing scrubs in the early 1980s when caring for AIDS patients. My fellow volunteers knew I had a PhD, so they stole several of my scrub shirts and paid a tailor to embroider “Dr. Glenn” on the left-hand breast pocket. They found it hilarious that everyone who saw me assumed I was an MD. I still have that problem today whenever I wear scrubs.

Summer will soon be upon us, and I’ll be resorting to wearing scrubs because they are the coolest clothes I have. That means I’ll be facing once again the problem of being taken for a physician and having to explain that I am not.

One more little wrinkle that makes my life interesting.