Imaging adventure

Six hours, total, and the MRI's are done.  

My 2:00 appointment was scheduled at the "boutique" imaging center where I go to for mammograms.  The waiting room is decorated in pastels, mostly pinks, and a large clear TV plays HGTV.  

In the MRI room, the enormous Siemen's machine is the newest model; its jackhammer and drilling noises partially muted by earphones.  Near the end of the procedure on one foot, the machine shut down due to weather, but I wasn't particularly bothered by it.  The rhythmic heartbeat sound during the 30-minute was actually soothing.  I got up and stretched. 

Then she tried again.  Same thing happened.  Due to the weather,  the lights in the room dimmed a time or two and there was nothing they could do until an engineer came to fix it. The next appointment was two weeks out.  

So from the desk of the friendly receptionist, they booked me for another one 17 miles away if I could get there in 30 minutes, which I did. 

The differences between the two clinics were stark.  The second waiting room was all brown, dark, and freezing cold. The receptionists seemed annoyed and grouchy.  The two tiny TVs were playing Hallmark channel but the screens were so snowy nobody was watching. My first and lasting impression was, "We don't care about our patients, we just want to move you in and out."

An hour after my scheduled appointment, I got up from my brown chair in the cold waiting room and asked the receptionist how long it would take.  "We're always behind," she said.  "Maybe half an hour or so?"  She grudgingly got me a thin blanket.

I told her I needed to get done before dark, that I preferred not to drive in the dark if the roads get icy.

At 5:00, I followed the technician down a long hall to the dressing room.  I put my phone, glasses,  pocket book and sweater in the locker.  But unlike the first clinic, there was no key and I couldn't read the combination without my glasses.  

The Seimen's machine looked old, but it stood up for the job.  The ear phones didn't mute the jackhammers and drill sounds.  

Lack of amenities and friendly faces notwithstanding, the job got done and I was relieved to walk out into the dark for my drive home.