The ambulance pulled into the bay at St. Vincent and I could hear the huge overhead door coming down as the engine shut off. The back door swung open and the cold air filled the cab of the ambulance. I remember the feeling of the chill wind rushing up my arms making the hair stand on end as the paramedic and the EMT came around and pulled my stretcher out the back of the ambulance.
We entered the sliding doors to the hospital and around the corner we sped to a room who's number I couldn't read before we flew through the doors. The paramedic and EMT lined my stretcher up next the bed, grabbed the sheets I was on, and pulled me over to my new bed.
Rose, my mother in-law, and Robert came through the door shortly after the paramedic and EMT left. Shortly after them, a nurse walked through the door. They asked me the same hundred questions I had been asked once before already. Can you explain what happened? Do you know where you are? How long has this been going on?
Some of the questions they asked seemed very pointless. Others seemed to have an undertone of doom to them. After answering all the questions to doctor told me I would have to have a CAT Scan of my spine to make sure nothing was wrong with it. The nurses took blood, urine, and I'm pretty sure they had me sign the rights to my second born child somewhere between all the documents and questions.
Waiting for everything to be setup for the CAT Scan seemed to take forever. Sitting nervously with everyone in the room we all tried to make small talk about how foggy it was, how cool it was. It all seemed forced and unnatural. A small part of me wanted to scream at the top of my lungs.
To my surprise my grandfather and dad came walking through the door as we all waited. We hugged as they asked the inevitable questions all the same as the doctors, nurses, and paramedics had.
Finally the doctor came walking through the door and with the help of a nurse, informed me that the CAT Scan was ready. With that they grabbed my bed, flipped a switch on the floor out of my sight, and pulled my bed to out of the room.
We went to a small dark room with a large machine that resembled something out of a Tim Burton movie. A CAT Scan machine, for those who don't know, is a very large machine that has a very small tube like area the patient is shoved into for long periods of time where it feels like you cook on low.
I put the headphones on as they transferred me onto the sliding table. I had lain down and before I knew it they were sliding me into the tube. I remember I was given the chance to tell them what type of music I enjoyed so they could tune the headphones the gave me to something similar. I told them classical orchestra, and what they gave me was definitely not what I thought they would have chosen.
The machine sounded broken as I laid inside of it. It made grinding, creaking, and other noises I cant describe. I started sweating from he amount of heat generated both by my own body, and by the machine as it rumbled. After an hour the machine shut down, and I was pulled out. The nurses transferred me back onto the bed and wheeled me back into the patient room with my family waiting for me.
After another period of waiting the doctor returned to the my room.
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