I feel as if I was abducted by aliens yesterday. From my trip to the hospital, to my ride home, nothing felt like anything I had ever experienced before. I rode my scooter over to the hospital because Wheeltrans was giving me a hard time.
There was a lot of construction on the road I took there. There were huge piles of gravel that were almost impossible to ride over. Part of the road was flooded. Some of the sidewalk was missing. I rode in the bike lane.
At the hospital there was a long line of people, all safely spaced 2 metres apart, waiting to go in. Once inside I was bombarded with questions, given a green sticker, some hand sanitizer and instructions to get to were I needed to go. Unfortunately the directions were not correct. I became lost in a mess of uninhabited corridors.
When I finally reached the right place, by accident, there were more questions and a denial of who I was and a lack of the proper papers that would allow me to have the tests done. Everything had been arranged by my doctor. I had been notified by phone. I had no papers. Happy but frustrated I was ready to go home. The only thing that stopped me was my fear of losing my way again and maybe ending up in a Covid unit. So I waited for a fax from my doctor's office.
When it finally came I was directed, once again wrongly, to a black door on the left. The door turned out to be green. That is when I knew I had been abducted. Everything after that was a blur. I was made to get off my scooter and transfer to a huge camera thing that looked like it belonged in another world. I was given an IV injection of what I figured were radio active isotopes. Some photos were taken and I was told to get back onto my scooter. I thought I was done, but no!
They told me to leave and return at 2:15. That was 3 hours away! I wanted to go home but it felt as if they had control of me. I went outside because I was cold. But I couldn't warm up. I waited and waited. Finally it was time. I was in pain. I had a headache. I had trouble getting onto the slab that was the imaging machine. My legs were lifted and re-positioned many times. I was so cold I was shivering. Finally I was told to get off the machine. I was told that I needed some X-rays. They gave me a requisition.
I returned to the intake desk. More questions. Had I been to Africa? What planet am I on? I asked. I think they thought I was crazy. I felt crazy. When the X-rays were done. I hightailed it out of the hospital. I took a different way home.
I started to feel as if I was free again. The fields and road sides were covered in Queen Anne's Lace flowers. I wanted to pick them, as a symbol of my freedom. They made me smile. I felt that I had survived my abduction.
