Where Does That Thermometer Go?

The other day, I was at the doctor’s office. I had a tick bite and because of symptoms, wanted confirmation that I didn’t have a worse problem. Just to let you know, I do not have Lyme’s disease. However, the doctor did not have the ability in the office to do a blood draw and sent me to the clinic for infectious diseases in Zagreb. When the nurse called me for the initial consultation, she wanted to take my temperature, so she gave me a thermometer and asked me to return in 5 or 10 minutes. I obediently took the thermometer, shoved it in my mouth and sat down in the lobby. Then I noticed how large the thermometer was and how awkward it felt in my mouth – more like a cigar. Then I began to wonder where the thermometer was supposed to go and if I really wanted it in my mouth. As I debated this with myself, I looked around and nobody was begging me to remove the thermometer, so I left it in. After I gave it back to the nurse and returned to the lobby, I noticed another guy with a funny protrusion from his armpit. A couple minutes later he got up, pulled the thermometer from his armpit, and returned it to the nurse. Turns out, that in Croatia you take your temperature in your armpit. I love living in a foreign country, especially when I’m at the infectious diseases clinic, with an armpit thermometer in my mouth when the outside temperature is in the 90’s.