White coats cause trauma

I've been in pretty good health most of my life, so there haven't been that many trips to the doctor. Maybe that's why sitting in the waiting area, sitting on the table in the patient room and that knock on the door when the doctor is finally ready to see you cause the blood to rush so much.
My blood pressure at the machines in the store is always pretty normal. But you get a nurse in the room and suddenly it shoots up.
My beautiful wife calls it "white coat syndrome." She said her mom has it and after going to the doctor with Big Sister on Tuesday, I'm sure she has it. The doctor visit was part of our ongoing investigation into what is really at the root of Big Sister's food allergies.
It was a pretty good day. I stayed home from work, so we got out of bed and got ready at a pretty leisurely pace. We had breakfast and I even took the girls to the park to play.
We dropped Little Sister off at grandma's house because she wasn't going to sit around in a doctor's office all afternoon.
The three of us took a short shopping trip to return some shoes and search for back-to-school deals.
But after an hour or so of procrastinating and eating lunch, it was time to go or risk being late to the appointment.
My blood pressure was up just trying to get there as they changed the names of the roads around the hospital in the two months since the office sent us directions. I drove around looking for West Drive, a road name that no longer exists.
We rushed up to the desk, hoping that being exactly on time wasn't late since the directions said to get there 20 minutes early. We were fine of course and took a seat in the waiting room where the Beautiful Wife and Big Sister pulled out "Ramona and Beezus" to pass the time and take the edge off. They are reading the book before they go see the movie. I think they had to go back later and reread a few pages, because Big Sister wasn't paying much attention.
We got the call to go into the doctor's office after about 10 minutes. We sat in the patient room and, luckily, they didn't make Big Sister put on a gown or anything.
She was nervous and it showed. Finally, that knock came. The doctor walked in and Big Sister got really quiet.
I think she might have a great future as a mime because every question was answered with hand gestures.
We got through the appointment. I'm not sure if the results will reveal why Big Sister gets hives with so many foods she eats, but it did show off her full-blown case of "white coat syndrome."