A day of frustrating delays

Took more than 50 minutes to get to the BMT clinic this morning with all of the delay on Highland Drive to the clinic with the longest single stop at the junction of Medical Way (this has been renamed Mario Cappechi blvd, but I can't find the name on a map and don't really know how to spell it) and Point of Hope Drive where a traffic accident was being investigated by several police officers, one of whom let 4 light changes worth of east bound traffic through the intersection while the north bound trafffic waited. I arrived in front of the hospital more than 20 minutes late so let a "free" valet parking attendant park the pickup (Emma wanted the Lexus to go to her aquazixe class, which she had just resumed attending last Friday). It was much later that I learned what a big mistake that had been.



I was in the registration lobby for the clinic shortly before 9:00 AM and had started out of the lower driveway at about 8:25. After a short delay in the lobby of the clinic I was ushered into an examination room for the taking of my vitals and then sometime later for emplacing a line in my port and the blood collecting for what supposedly determines the Velcade shot. A woman patient was being treated in the regular room for line installations. By this time I had told various nurses or medical assistants that I had been suffering from a cold for the last 10 days. So tests were begun to determine how severe a cold I had. These included a nasal wash, chest x-rays, the bloodwork, of course, and then physical examinations by a new PA (Vicki) and Dr. Tricot, both of whom questioned me about my cold and then Dr. Tricot said he was going to have Vicki write 2 prescriptions for me. He obviously thought that I did not have a cold, but instead was suffering from an allergic reaction. This was confirmed by the prescriptions; one for an inhaler loaded with albuterol sulfate and another for a nasal spray, which is an over the counter drug and is not stocked by the Huntsman Pharmacy.



All of this took a lot of time and included a long wait at the pharmacy, but I could have been out of there by 12:30 except when I requested the return of my pickup I experienced another very long wait. Finally the attendant came and told me that none of them could release the emergency brake and he wanted me to try to release it. I couldn't release it either. I had left the engine running with the gears in neutral and the emergency brake on. The brute who parked it had pushed the emergency brake so hard that it could not be disengaged. I finally called triple A. the driver got lost and had to call me for directions, which I could not give and had to turn the phone over to the attendant at the registration desk. She was able to talk the lady into the circle at the front of the Hospital; I thought that AAA had made a terrible mistake by sending a smallish woman, but once I got her to the pickup it only took her about a minute and a half to free up the emergency brake. By then it was after 2:00 PM and I was starving. You could call it a wasted day.