My mother has a doctor's appointment at 10:00 am tomorrow morning, 45 minutes from our house. She insists on getting all dressed up to go to the doctors office, and she needs at least a half hour on the ice packs in the morning, plus breakfast and calming time before we leave. This means getting up an ungodly hour. Mind you, it takes me all of 15 minutes to get ready, set, GO! so I have never really understood this long careful preparation for something this mundane. Is this a generational thing?
Normally we try to schedule her appointments for either 11 am in the morning or 4 pm in the afternoon (after her nap), but the doctor called and rescheduled this appointment and my husband took the call (he doesn't know any better, poor guy, he tries). We have a community calendar where we put all of our appointments, and the time was free, so he put it in.
We used to be able to go out for lunch or go shopping or do other things. Not any longer. Mom is so weak now that getting her up, dressed, and to a doctor's appointment is all she can do. By the time she's done with that she just basically falls into bed. She has some GI bleeds, had transfusions but was still weak, now she's been diagnosed with pernicious anemia. Need to do some reading up on that.
I choose to wear clothes easy to take off and put on if I have an appointment that might involve that but certainly don't consider a visit to the doctor to be a dress-up occasion! Mom does, though.
If possible, in the future make appointments for later in the day, so you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn. And take advantage of having her all glamorous to perhaps go out for lunch or coffee afterwards.