The Room with Too Many People

It’s been over a week since my last blog post. That’s mainly because my hip adventure has slowed down to a crawl. Over the past week, I’ve done my three daily physio sessions, and the hip is healing slowly. Today, however, I have something to write about.

I’m seeing my surgeon tomorrow, and he gave me a requisition to have x-rays done at Hôpital de Gatineau prior to the appointment. I asked if I could have the x-rays done at a private clinic close to my home, but he told me it had to be Hôpital de Gatineau. So, this morning, since I’m not allowed to drive yet, Corinne drove me to Hôpital de Gatineau.

When we got to the hospital, we followed the signs to the x-ray department. On our way, we passed a huge room that was packed with hundreds of unhappy-looking people. I said to Corinne, “I’m so glad we’re not going there.”

At the x-ray department, we stood in line for 15 minutes. A sign told me to have my requisition from the doctor, my health card, and my hospital card ready. I had all of those things in hand, but, when I got to the desk, the lady looked at my hospital card and said, “I can’t do anything with this. It’s from Hôpital de Hull. Don’t you have a card for Hôpital de Gatineau?”
“No,” I said, ” It’s my first time here.”
“Oh,” she said, “You’ll need to have a card made. For that, you must go to the room with too many people.” She smiled and pointed down the hallway.

I went to Corinne and said, “We have to go to the room with too many people.”
“Oh dear,” she sighed, “not the room with too many people.”

Corinne knew where the room was and lead me there. When I entered the room, I was overwhelmed. There were too many people. The signs were all in French, and I didn’t know what to do. Corinne went up to an electronic kiosk and pressed a selection on the touch screen. The kiosk spit out a little slip of paper with the number 191 on it.

Because there were too many people in the room, I was discouraged about the prospects of getting a card any time soon, and the number 191 seemed like a big number. I said to Corinne, “This is ridiculous. Let’s get out of here. We’ll go to a private clinic, get my x-rays put on a CD, and I’ll bring the CD to my doctor’s appointment tomorrow.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “We’re staying. Most of these people are here for appointments and other reasons.”
She pointed to a screen that showed that Guichet F was now seeing number 180. “Your number will show up on the screen within 15 minutes,” she reassured me.

Because all the chairs in the room were taken, we stood in the crowd of too many people, and soon my number appeared on the screen. The pleasant, efficient lady at Guichet F made me a card within seconds, and we headed back to the x-ray department. This time, there was no line, and I was processed and sent to a waiting room. While Corinne read her book in the waiting room, I slipped into an attractive blue hospital gown, had my x-rays done. The technicians were delightful, and we had a lot of fun getting the pictures taken. We all laughed when I bumped my head on the x-ray machine as I got up.

The entire Hôpital de Gatineau adventure only took an hour and a half. I’m glad that Corinne stopped me from bolting. I’m glad that she made me stay in the room with too many people.