(Previously: The Medical Adventures of Sabian (1/2) )
Day 2 (Saturday)
You wake up, and despite yesterday, you actually have a good morning chatting with someone who ended up joining your new mobile app’s beta testing, then after this you chatted with a couple knowledgeable cybersecurity experts you’re considering working with for another project, too.
But you remember the life-threatening condition that you’re still not sure you have until you get that scan, and decide to leave at 1:00pm for that first location you tried yesterday remembering this time that they had unofficially changed their closing time to 4:30pm, and seeing on your list that it shows they’re open on Saturday.
The Imaging Facility (Again)
At 1:45pm, you arrive at the location, and after 20 minutes of waiting in line, you hand the nurses your doctor’s reference, and what they say is amazing…
“Sorry, we don’t have the specialized equipment for this test here”
Now you’re reminded of your frustration from yesterday and this time it’s worse, but… again you know it’s not the nurses’ faults, and they even apologized for that when that’s not something they can control. They also helped you by pointing to a location on your list that may have the equipment for your scan! That’s when you thank the nurses for being very understanding and helpful.
Going to the Other Imaging Facility
Because the location the nurses gave you isn’t open today, you decide to go to the only other location that is open on Saturdays. The thing is you’re currently in New Westminster, the 2nd location is in Coquitlam nearly 8km away, and you’re taking public transit. Well, you tell yourself “I just gotta do this scan an I’ll be done with it”.
First, you’re hungry, so you decide to get some food and eat for an hour, and you end up having a nice chat with the brother and sisters you know who run a Middle-Eastern food stand family business right in front of Columbia Station.
After you finish eating, then taking a bus, a train, waiting 20 minutes for another bus, and then walking for another 10 minutes, you finally make it to the 2nd location by 4:00pm, which is an outdoor walk-through multiplex of various buildings.
No Way…
You double check the unit number of the location which is “100”, and as you walk past the first unit which was empty/renovating, you scan every single door, but end up reaching the end of the hall without finding “100”, when an unbelievable thought enters your mind: “No… it wasn’t the empty unit…”.
As you walk back to the empty unit, there you see it: a little piece of paper stuck to the door saying “West Coast Medical Imaging: We have moved”. You say out loud “Oh my freaking—”, and then you see that the new location is literally one stop away from the train station you just came from after waiting 20 minutes for that bus.
Now, you’re in a WoNdErFuL mood, and guess what you see next: the bus schedule to get back to the train station is a 30-minute wait.
You would flip a table if there was one, but there isn’t, so you say “F— I can walk back faster than this”, so you start walking. After about 25 minutes, you’re two blocks from the train station when the bus passes by you 5 minutes earlier than its scheduled time.
Now you’re imagining yourself jumping around the street like an insane monkey on drugs, but you inhale… exhale… and say “I just need to get this scan done, and then done”
The Real Second Facility
Since the location shows it closes at 5:30pm, and it’s already 4:45pm, you want to make it before 5:00pm just in case they do their last-calls, so you speedwalk to the train station, wait impatiently 4 minutes for the bus to get you to the NeW location
Finally, by 5:02pm, you make it to the doors, yes! You pull on the handles, relieved that you made it in time, but the door doesn’t open. It’s locked. You look at the schedule on the door and see… a little paper… stuck on top of the schedule that says…
Closed at 4:30pm.
(Next in chapter 2 part 1: much better, incredibly helpful ladies, smooth sailing?…)