The power of past tense

I know you’ve asked the same question before so don’t give me any grief. The untimely, “when is your baby due?” I’ve decided I will never ask the question again. (Although I think I had already decided I would never ask the question. So much for commitment) Of course, in my mind, all the facts seemed to have added up to a legitimate inquiry...until the words left my mouth, and at that moment, I realized my analysis was miscalculated.

I was doing an exam today after the hygienist had just finished cleaning a woman’s teeth. She was sitting in the dental chair and her newborn baby was sitting in a baby carrier next to her on the floor. As I have not spent a lot of time with newborns, I didn’t accurately judge the child’s age. It looked older than nine months to me. As I was doing the exam, the hygienist was going over the woman’s health history with me. “She is pregnant...bla, bla, bla...and we took new x-rays today.”

As we rarely take radiographs on a pregnant female I was curious as to why the hygienist took the films, but did not comment on it since I didn’t want to raise any concerns. Instead, I was trying to figure out if she was in her 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd trimester because it affects treatment decisions. I finished the exam and sat her up. “When are you due?” I asked. The hygienist looked at me and only spoke with her eyes. She then tried to help smooth the situation. “She just had her baby Dr. Kelson; see, right there on the floor.” I tried apologizing. “I’m sorry, I misunderstood. I thought I heard you say she was pregnant.” She clarified, “I said she WAS pregnant; not she IS pregnant.”

I sheepishly said a few other words that I cannot recall to try and redeem myself and slowly backed out of the room with my tail between my legs. “It was nice meeting you.”