After checking into the emergency department of the nearest hospital to where I lived, I was given a wheelchair and I waited for eight hours to see a medical professional. So much for getting to the emergency department early in the day to get ahead of the other infermed. I was not a real emergency, I was breathing and my heart was pumping. My vitals (blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels in my blood and breathing rate) were normal. And so my sisters and I waited.
The hospital we went to was also close to the inner city and is where the prison folk are brought to. So if a person is not rushed for time it is a good place to watch people waiting in the emergency department; people puking, people drunk and not able to sit up, people complaining, babies crying, children coughing, people maimed by injured limbs, people curled up in a chair in a fetal position rocking back and forth hoping to ease their pain, people who smelled like they haven't bathed or washed their clothe ever (could be me), and people in orange onesies with shackles on their legs and handcuffed accompanied by an officer. I wondered what they did to be in prisioned.
Watching these people overtime revealed the tolerance process for having a lengthy wait. When people first came they sat down, some looking anxious and some looking like this place was a daily visit and comfortable to be there. Over time each showed agaiation toward others waiting and the medical staff , in various ways as their tolerence dwindled .Periodically, paramedics would arrive with someone on a stretcher and pass the waiting room. You know when someone in that condition require most of the staff which will increase the wait.
To ease the pain of a lengthy wait to see a doctor the hospital provided a television that hung on the wall which was turned on but with no volume. Magazines were available if you wanted to be informed of the news of the day, which at that time was a ferry sinking in Bangladesh, Prince Charles visiting flood stricken Ireland, Somalian pirates overtaking an oil tanker, Tigar Woods condition following his car accident then divorce, the emergency landing of a jet on the Hudson river, three women are found having been kidnapped eighteen years, the death of Walter Cronkite, Ted Kennedy, Michael Jackson and Ford's Saturn.
If world news is not your thing, pop culture magazines were available that reported GQ' "badass" men of the year included Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, Johnny Depp gets People Magazines's sexiest man alive, Kenya West boycotts Taylor Swifts award for best video, David Letterman confesses that he had an affair and was being blackmailed, Robert Redford and Bruce Willis both get remarried, George Clooney remains committed to bachelorhood, and the escapades;of a divorced mother named Kate who has eight children.
I however would never touch a magazine in a public place. The bottom right corner is crawling with
A plethora of disease bugs from the saliva as a result of the saliva from the tongue to the finger
method of turning pages. When this happens repeatedly, that wet finger space becomes dirty and crusty.
Some of the people in the waiting room could care less about the news or pop culture. Instead they are focused on the hopes that their condition will allow them more time to live. There is no other place on earth like the emergency waiting room. What else would bring this mix of people together with a commonality that they require treatment to be healthier.
The wait was not so entertaining for Diane. She had a Christmas party to go to that night. I didn't
know this at the time and was happy to have someone as I wait and I go through the medical
assessment process. I was not concerned about my condition but I knew that I could not function on
my own. It never occurred to me that I would be like this for the rest of my life. Diane stayed until
they made a decision on wether I going to be admitted to the hospital or be sent home.
While we waited, and I remained in denial and my sisters debriefed on the discovery of me in my
house. Diane commented to Trisha, "John called me last night and said that someone needed to take her to the hospital". She paused as her eyes filled with tears and then said "I could not find her in the house, she blended in with the garbage". Diane continued " I was horrified, I don't understand this and I never will". "She is worse than I expected she would be from what John told me". Trisha replied, "this situation cannot stay this way". Diane was already looking at needed to be done. At that point they were committed to many hours to first deal with the house and a potential handicapped sister. This was overwhelming as they were already care givers for our parents whose health was declining
