Being a frequent patient at several of the areas doctor's offices and medical centers, and a walking medical time-bomb, I usually attempt to have a great deal of sympathy, not only for the people that find themselves in the unfortunate position of being a patron to one of these offices, but also to the people whose thankless jobs it is to handle those patients and procedures. But recently I was once again visiting one of these doctor's offices at an area hospital and I was just absolutely astounded at the surrealistic experience it turned out to be.
The first sight I saw was as I was walking into the Outpatient Center, and I noticed that the ground seemed to be rumbling, as if a small tremor had hit our little geographical area. No we didn't have any quakes that day, but I'd be surprised if this didn't register on the Richter Scale. And, let me just say right now that this woman should have been brought in by ambulance and not by the two poor children pushing her wheelchair. Yes, I said wheelchair. And yes, I said that two kids were pushing this thing, but they were not little kids. they were probably in their early to mid teens. This chair looked like it had been manufactured by Caterpillar - you know, the big bulldozer and road building machinery company? I mean, it could have been powered by an 8-cylinder diesel engine with a 5-speed transmission. Needless to say, it was like, triple-wide, with dual wheels on each side of the chair. It looked like one of those Dualy farm trucks that pull horse trailers. I swear, this woman weighed at least 800 pounds, and I am not exaggerating! And those poor kids were huffing and puffing for all they were worth just to get her along the sidewalk. I just hope that she was coming in the hospital for gastric bypass surgery, because those kids were miserable!
But then, as karma would have it, while I was still just marveling at the sight I had just witnessed, I was being checked in to have my own procedure done, and since it was an ultrasound on the vascular structure of my legs, I had to go all the way down to radiology. Well, I know where radiology is, I've been there a hundred times, so, just give me my paperwork and I'll be on my way. But nooooo --- Regulations and all that. So, I had to wait for a volunteer to get to me with guess what? A wheelchair! to push me down to have an ultrasound. Well, I guess I could have enjoyed the ride, but oh the guilt and shame I felt! Not so much because I was on the verge of ridiculing the sight I had just seen, but the volunteer that had to push me was an extremely elderly, very delicate looking old gentleman who just had no business pushing a young(er), (relatively) healthy man down the hall of a hospital.
And I just have a feeling that things are going to be getting a whole lot worse in the medical field before they start to, if ever, get better. And that can be pretty spooky.
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