Hospital woes

Song of the day: “I’ll survive you” by BC Jean. I just recently discovered this young artist while I was trying to find out who wrote “I’m just a boy” because both Reba McIntire and Beyonce sang it. I’ve gotta admit that a warmer voice would have done this song more justice, but still the lyrics are impressive. A very talented young lady, to say the least.

Well, it has been a turbulent couple of days, least of all involving my new part-time-job, doing a friend of a friend a favor kind of thing. *sigh* It’s a good thing I like driving, and know what to do when I’m waiting a lot, because baby, I did a lot of both. Hah.

But anyway, the day before yesterday I met with the friend of Dani who needed someone to sub for her as driver/carer for her friend who had to be brought to the hospital. Her friend had been waiting for medication, and since he already missed his appointment Wednesday, someone really needed to drive him. So she took me over to his place, which is a half hour drive from home, in a rather backwards little neighborhood that you can really easily overlook. But anyway, she introduced me to her friend, we agreed that I would pick him up and bring him to his consultation in the morning...which led to a rather long day for both of us.

So what happened...surprisingly (*snort*) I’m going to tell.
My alarm went off at seven thirty, at which point I rushed through the morning rituals, hopped into the pool to wake the heck up, nuked a cup of coffee, prepared a couple of peanut butter and honey sandwiches, rushed up to the Opel to check the cooling liquid and hopped in at exactly eight thirty.
*phew* Almost didn’t make it in time either, and rushed down the road, hoping that I had calculated the distance properly.

Arrived at the guy’s doorstep one minute to nine and let myself in with the key I had been given. He is rather weak, so he was still sitting in the same chair as the day before. We talked a moment, “How are you feeling? Do you know the way to the hospital? (I didn’t, you see) How long will it take us?”
Answers: “Fine. Yes. About thirty minutes. Do you want me to get ready now?”
“If you think we need that much time, and if you want to, sure.”
So he did, and we left about half an hour later. While he was getting ready I went a little through the mess in the kitchen. Put the dishes in soapy water, tried to figure out where the heck the trashcan was hidden (couldn’t figure it out) and then headed out with the guy.

We arrived at the hospital well on time, and after checking at the information desk where we had to go, we headed for the blue hall (or some such) where the guy managed to snatch a wheelchair, and I a nurse to ask where we had to be. Turns out, she didn’t know nothing about any appointment, and if we wanted to be helped, I would have to sort it out at the main counter, where they’d either give me directions, or a new appointment. *sigh*

We had to get a number 594 and on the board it read 548, meaning that we had a long wait ahead of us. Luckily I had taken my block note and pen along, because for the next hour and a half I wrote on the book, occasionally checking out the progress and my companion, who sat semi-dozing in the commandeered wheelchair.

I don’t think I’ll ever find out why, but all of a sudden a young lady and her mother started talking to me in Spanish, and asked me if I was waiting to make a new appointment. I tried (with quite a bit of difficulty on my part) to explain the problem. “He missed his appointment on Wednesday, and got a phone call the other day saying that he has a new appointment today at eleven”. Apparently they understood what I explain, because before I knew it, the young lady offered to arrange a new appointment for us, since the numbers already showed that it was her turn. Within minutes it was arranged, and she and her mother pointed us in the right direction towards the back of the hospital where we had to wait for his consult with the doctor.

So, yeah. I had no idea where we had to go, but went out the door they had pointed at, went down the slope, up, asked a group of older doctors (flagging them down with the new appointment paper) where to find room 125, while pointing at the information on the paper. The nice doctor pointed behind him, saying second door on the left, and then moseyed along while I wheeled my companion up the incline.

Success! We arrived at the waiting room, where after about fifteen minutes the nurse took our paper, before disappearing again, coming to fetch waiting patient after waiting patient. While I continue to write on the scene I’m working at, and my companion stares vacantly in the distance (I tried several times to start a conversation, but he wasn’t in a talking mood), the small waiting room slowly empties. At some point the same nurse comes out and tells (at least that is what I understood) us that the doctor was presently gone, and that she didn’t know when he’d be back.

More waiting ensued. A total of four hours no less, at which point we did discuss maybe making a new appointment and coming back another day. But since my companion was feeling rather poorly, we decided to wait it out.

I did more writing, this time standing up, because my butt just wouldn’t stand for any more sitting on bad chairs. I think throughout the day I managed to jot down six to eight solid pages of the book. Yay.

But anyway, no sounds came from the door on which a sign warned not to knock, staff would come out to check every now and then, was stuck, so after a while I headed out into the summer heat to go into the neighboring waiting room to ask if someone maybe knew what the heck was taking so long.
“Sorry, if he’s not here for an eye-exam, I don’t know anything” was basically the answer. *sigh*

So I went to the other side, the main desk of the emergency room and the admission desk. I waited for about fifteen minutes (didn’t want to leave companion on his own too long) without anyone even looking in my direction, and then returned to just finally ignore the sign and knock on the “do not knock” door.
Nothing.
I waited another fifteen minutes and deciding that four hours really was getting ridiculous, knocked a little harder.
The nurse opened the door, looked slightly surprised and smiled in a friendly manner, saying that the doctor was there and would see us.

Finally!
Companion was wheeled out into the hallway towards another room where the doctor (finally someone who could speak English) explained that he wanted to admit him due to his weight-loss. Companion gratefully agreed, after I explained again what exactly the doctor wanted, but insisted that we go back to his home to pack a bag. The doctor didn’t like that at all (last time companion signed himself out against the doctor’s wishes, I think) but when I promised I would bring him back the doc looked grateful and agreed. We did need to wait for him to finish the paperwork that we needed to have him admitted, just as soon as we got back.

Forty minutes later, I wheeled companion all round the building again, set him in the shade in front of the hospital, got the car at the other side of the parking lot (was a busy day at the hospital) and drove right to the curb so he could hop in. He was breathing pretty heavy, so I was a little worried as we headed back to his place. Took another half hour or so to get there, and when we got there, it took at least forty minutes to gather his things, (his glasses and toothbrush were nowhere to be found) grab some fresh fruit, and finally locating the glasses on his nightstand.

That done, a quick stop at the gas station recharging his phone, and back on the road we were. By the time we got back to the hospital, I was lucky enough to locate a parking spot right near the ER, where I pulled in in a rush before anyone else could. Companion was breathing even heavier by then, but we were there in no time and after showing his paperwork at the desk we went into the waiting room to wait for his name to be called.

Another half hour to a full hour later his name was finally called (foreign names are usually mutilated, and his was no exception) and I barely had time to hand him his paperwork and bag before the door was slammed in my face. *sigh*

I made a quick trip to the bathroom (which was very necessary by then) and then hurried on out
to the car. It was around five when I returned his car to his place, dropped the key in the letter box, along with the folder of his paperwork, made one last check that everything was arranged and returned to my own car to head on home.

The heat of the day had really settled by then, and I was steamy by the time I got home. First thing I needed to do was jump into the pool where I soaked for a minute or two. Then I stuffed my face with food, because let’s face it, I was starving by then. Then I gave big brother and grandpa (they had just finished hanging the last of tenant’s new terrace doors) an update of the day’s events and gratefully headed down into the yard.

For the next few hours I worked there, calming down, nibbling on fresh veggies, and then heading up for some more food involving French bread, yogurt sauce, cheese and veggies. Yummy. All in all it was an eventful day. Now I would like to have said that I had enough energy left at the end of the day to put all my paper written pages in the computer, but after eleven in the evening, I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone type...well, I could, but I found several sentences that had to do with doze-dreams rather than copying my handwritten text...yes, I can write with my eyes closed and asleep, apparently. *double sigh*

So that brings us to today. Since I went to bed almost two hours early, I managed to get a whopping eight hours of sleep. I know, I was stunned too, but it was absolutely wonderful! I woke several times during the night and just thought, “Oh, this is nice” only to turn over and continue to sleep. Hah.

There was laundry today, of course, a quick trip to the village to drop caregiver off at her other job. After breakfast I took to washing the Land Rover and the Opel, because, let’s face it, they were both dirty as heck, and then waxing the first for the first time since we have it. Seriously, it never looked this good before. It’s beautiful...I can see my reflection in it, for crying out loud!

I got a phone call while I was working on the cars, Dani’s friend, who wanted to ask me to go back to the hospital with her friend’s charger and the remainder of fruit from his fridge...assuring me that the same fee was involved. Now personally, I would like to say that I can do stuff like that for free, but I can’t. Stupid economy.

But anyway, I finished that around two (big brother spent that time doing some repairs on the Opel) and then helped tenant change into something else and walk down. I thought she had wanted to join us on the lower terrace, but she decided to stick to my cabin terrace underneath the big umbrella until her caregiver returned from her other job.

I went down to the basin once she was settled, harvested a big batch of fresh tomatoes and then started on fresh veggie mix lunch. I got a call from the computer shop, informing me that my computer was fixed, so triple Yay!!! (I’m writing this on it, hah)

So first big brother and I went to town to pick up my computer and some other stuff, then we headed for the hospitalized fellow’s house to pick up the items he needed, and then headed once more to the hospital.

It took a bit, but information informed me that his room was on the fifth floor. We opted to take the stairs (boy that was a distance) and I had to catch my breath at the end of it before I went to find my “quarry”. He was dozing, was feeling relatively well, was no on medication and didn’t need anything else. I put his stuff on the table, showed him his charger, and wished him the best of luck before I left him to the nap he seemed to prefer to company.

Got my exercise going down the empty stairs (I love empty stairwells) top speed, and headed on back to the car to start on our way home. Jeez. That felt like another long day. On our way home we ended up losing our way in Malaga a bit. Well, not actually losing our way. We knew where we were, we just didn’t know how to get back to the main road, which is a problem in Malaga.

My dogs were not happy with me these past couple of days, I tell ya. Knight II was so miffed, in fact, that he didn't even bother to get up from his place on the arm chair in my cabin when I got back. Traitor! Chaos was properly ecstatic, though, so that made up for the big one's slight, darn it.


Well, I better try get some more writing done now, almost four pages for this blog is more than enough.