A Trip to the Hospital

Last week, one morning, I woke up with fairly bad back pain. This has been a fairly chronic thing, dating back to about last October. But last Wednesday, it was the worst it's ever been, so I went to Campus Health about it.

I got looked over by a nurse, she said come back Friday when the doctor was in.

So I came back Friday. Doctor put pressure on spots in my back, in places causing a lot of pain. So he sent me for X-Rays. Personally I thought X-Rays were an overreaction, but I was stuck at this point.

So on Monday, I went to the hospital. Walla Walla General. I left home about 4:15. I spent the next thirty minutes looking for a bus stop. I wasn't sure whether I should go, because I knew I had an appointment with my accompanist, and I didn't know when it was that day. I waited at the bus stop until 5:00, then walked back to the music building to attempt to call my accompanist again. Having just spent 45 minutes outside, including much of that time standing still, I was now frozen. But I got a hold of her and cancelled the appointment.

Now it was 5:15pm. I got on the bus at 5:30. Got to the Hospital about 6:00. Went to admitting, they sent me to emergency. Went to emergency, waited in line for about twenty minutes, then got told that radiology closed at 6, but if I wanted to wait, the radiologist was in the Operating Room, and he could serve me once he got out. I asked how long that would be. "At most, an hour and a half." It was hinted at that I could go home, and come back tomorrow. So I did.

I walked down the road, and, as I expected, the buses were no longer running. (Or so I thought.) So I began the long process of walking home.

The temperature had notably dipped since I left. When I had left home I was not sure whether I should bring a scarf and hat, so I put it in my backpack. They proved useful when I got frozen the first time. Now they were merely hurdles for the cold to jump through.

At first, the scarf was quite useful. But the problem with scarves, when worn like I do and have them cover the mouth, is that it prevents the breath from going anywhere. The warm, moist breath--and as such, it simply rises, onto my glasses, where it condenses. If I forcefully exhale, I avoid this problem; but it can get quite annoying to forcefully exhale every breath you take; and eventually you forget once, and your glasses fog up for the next 10-15 seconds.

After a while, my glasses were no longer fogging up for 10-15 seconds--the condensation was freezing on the glasses. So I'd take my gloves, wipe off my glasses, then walk for a couple of minutes with good vision, then walk for five or ten minutes with fogged vision bad enough that I could only see headlights and stop lights, with shadows telling me where the sidewalk was. While this was happening, my legs froze, my knees froze, everything froze, and I was generally miserable. On the plus side, I kept myself going by humming the first few measures of Liszt's Totentanz. My feet and legs certainly felt like the piano part.

An hour and a half later, I made it back to campus. This would be about 8pm. You will note the irony that this was the time by which the doctor would have been out. (On the flip side, this would have meant me returning home by 9:30.) I proceeded directly to the music building, where I had the most productive oboe practice I've had all quarter, despite only being able to play for half an hour due to everything thawing out. (Meaning: if you are in desperate need of a good practice, go outside and freeze yourself to near frostnip.)

The next day, my oboe teacher gave me a ride to the hospital after my lesson, meaning I got there around 2:30. I waited for a little bit, then got to see a receptionist in the radiology department. She asked for my insurance. I gave it to her. She said this wasn't insurance, it was a drug plan. I said, "I have a drug plan?" I then spent five minutes digging through my wallet for anything that resembled a health insurance card, coming up short. She then picked up my drug plan card again, flipped it over and said, "Oh wait, I think it's right here. That's odd. I've never seen a medical plan and a drug plan printed on the same card. Hey, _____, have you ever seen this?"

She goes on to ask for my billing information. I ask, "but I have health insurance, so why do I need to be billed?" She replies that the company I use (the school's plan, btw) has one of two plans; either they pay the full up to $700, then 80% after that; or they pay 80% flat. And what you're getting today will certainly be more than $700. I quickly do the math in my head--20% of $700 is $140. Curing my back pain is not worth $140.

I then ask myself "if health insurance doesn't pay all your medical bills, what is the point of it?" Followed by "does it really cost $700+ to run an X-Ray machine for a few minutes?" Because I'm pretty sure doctors don't make $800 an hour, and there was a steady stream of people in the waiting room.

After waiting a half hour or so, I get in. I have to change into a medical gown. Very odd and cold little device. Then I make it in. There are two radiologists. It doesn't take me long to realize that the one working with me is a student. "Well, that last X-Ray didn't turn out, so let's try again." "This one didn't turn out; what happened?" Other person: "Try making him raise his arm more like this." "Ah, I see." I ended up getting 5 X-Rays done of my head (neck) and 4 of my chest. I hope my brain didn't get irradiated.

Took the bus back. Half froze once again sitting on the metal bus stop bench. Got back a little past 5, or barely in time for band. A wonderful adventure, wouldn't you say?