Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful
And yesterday it wasn't all that delightful on the inside.
This is John Stroger Hospital. Trust me when I tell you it doesn't look as nice in person. You ever watch St. Elsewhere? It's pretty damn close.
I was scheduled to have a brain MRI yesterday. It was originally suppose to be done on December 20th. Stroger rescheduled it without telling me. I found out when I called to confirm the day before. Figures that the new date is on the coldest Chicago day in two decades.
Now I'm not a total fool. I did call the hospital to see if it could be rescheduled without waiting another three months. The scheduling department was closed due to the weather.
At this point I can't blow off this thing. This is supposedly the final item before my disability claim is decided. I can't take any chances so off I go.
When the weather people tell you it's dangerously cold, believe them. I wore two shirts and a sweater. Corduroy pants with long undies that I didn't even know I owned. Ewwww but I still wore them. Two pairs of socks. Boots. Heavy jacket, a hat and the hood. Gloves with mittens over them...and I was still cold.
I walked two blocks. Got on a bus to go two more blocks. Hopped on a train. Transferred to another train. Walked three painful blocks and Bingo...I'm there. My lungs are frozen two blocks behind but ok.
After checking in, it seems they need to do a blood test. Make sure my kidneys are functioning before they shoot die into my bod. They said I should have come in the week before to do this. I told them that I figured the six vials of blood I gave them when they told me I had cancer should have worked for this, too. Apparently not, my bad.
The nurse has me sit down to draw some blood. Since I'm wearing about 50 layers of clothing, she figures finding a vein in my hand would be easy . This picture shows the damage. Neither hand worked for her so she had me take off my shirt, which I had to take off anyway for the test. DUH!!
Blood drawn from my arm...score. Funny thing is that from where they finally got the blood, no pain. My hands, swollen and big pain.
Now it's on to the MRI. This is what one of these machines looks like. It's huge. It's loud. And theirs is broken. They have an MRI repairman in to fix it. But they have another one across the street so off we go. Phew!
You lay down and they slide you under it (see above pic). You look up and see this piece of plastic over your face with what looks like bars over that. You feel like Hannibal Lechter or maybe a Hockey goalie. Corey Crawford would be dropping a dozen f-bombs. I dropped a few myself.
Next comes the noise. First is the banging. Like pounding a drum over and over and over. Then comes the screeching. Remember the sound your old dial-up internet service made? Triple that and add in the drums. It's like listening to a Yoko Ono album with Ginger Baker on the drums for about 40 minutes.
After a while, I got used to it. The drums kept a steady beat. Yoko was still screeching but Ginger had been replaced by Ringo. I was told I fell asleep.
Test is over. Get dressed. Results tomorrow. I'll believe that when I see it, but fine. Let's go home.
To get to this train, you have to walk on a ramp, over the Eisenhower Expressway. I look at the ramp. It's covered with ice and snow. I don't like this ramp on a good day. This wasn't a good day. Veto the train. The bus is safer. Home in an hour.
Total time from start to finish was just under four hours. Not bad for Stroger, especially under horrendous conditions.
Glad that one is over. What's next? Got me.....wonder if I have any Ringo albums.