My wife and I had joint cardiologist appointments yesterday. I went in drab mode but wore a bra since the most I imagined happening was that he'd listen to my heartbeat. Oops!
We are called back by the nurse who will collect our history and vitals and she immediately tells me that I'm due for an EKG. She starts with my wife's vitals and then mine. As soon as she finished taking my blood pressure cuff off, she tells me that I can lift my shirt. I excuse myself to go to the restroom and I remove the bra and stuff it into my jeans pocket and head back to the room.
I then lift my shirt and my wife's eyes go huge because obviously the bra had left very obvious marks across my chest. She shoots her eyes over at mine and then back to my chest and seems to cringe. The nurse was totally professional, although there was probably a bit of chatter about it in the office after we left. She finished with the EKG and took us to a room to wait for the doctor. Nothing was said. We finished with the doctor with all good news and left. I stopped by the restroom on the way out and quickly put the bra back in place before driving home.
On the way home it was random conversation for a few minutes before she finally told me that she was shocked when she saw the marks. There was no sense of judgment from the tone of her voice and we discussed it for a minute or two before moving to bigger and better things.
I felt sort of lame for not anticipating the EKG and a slight bit of embarrassment, but I really felt no shame for wearing the bra. That's a huge development for me. The fact that my wife's reaction was ultimately very mild compared to what it would have been in the past is a HUGE development for us.
