At this point, you have your ticket from the Receptionist and have a procedure scheduled for three weeks from now that will fix the root cause of your issues.
Three weeks is a long time during which anything can happen including a severe enough worsening of symptoms to land you in the Emergency Room. The ONLY good thing about this particular path, is that surgery happens sooner and, subsequently, so does recovery. Unfortunately, you have to go through a barrage of physical and mental experiences that stress out the body and mind.
Keeping your sanity in tact during the ER experience...
If you are in the ER, chances are good, the time on the clock does not fall within regular business hours. This comes with it's own set of Pros and Cons so you will need to use the 'tools' available in an effort to maintain sanity.
First and foremost, people watching can be more effective than any drug doctors can prescribe. During my life I've found three places that provide a high entertainment value (per capita) when it comes to people watching:
The Airport. Without question, this provides the widest variety of entertainment, but it's fleeting. People are usually in a rush so you must be quick to find entertainment at face value, rapid fire, as folks zip past en route to their gate (or the Rest Room).
Shopping Malls. Not quite as wide of a variety but entertaining just the same and there is potential for development of a short story about anyone you're watching. This one sounds slightly 'stalkerish' but it isn't and you know you've all done it.
Third, the ER, late at night, particularly on a weekend is like the tri-fecta of People Watching. Variety is very limited but usually packed with longer lasting story development potential that directly corresponds to the amount of time spent in the waiting room. This is like steroids for the imagination and should not be underestimated for it's medicinal value (at least until they get the IV hooked up). BEGINNERS: For this reason alone, it's worth bringing someone with you to an after hours ER visit. Make sure your person of choice is similar to you in both sense of humor and cell phone texting skills. This is paramount to maximizing the distracting qualities of finding humor in everything you see.
Trust me on this one, I could write an entire, chapter (fiction, of course...) of a book on the characters I've seen, late night, in the ER. It would include complete biographies right up to the event that brought them to the ER in the first place.
In my adult life, I have sat for as long as three or four hours in the ER due to my own health issues. For Waiting Room entertainment potential, by far, the favorable time to be there is somewhere between 11 pm and 2 am on a Friday or Saturday night (another good reason to have someone with you). This is like a knitting basket filled to the brim with skeins made of only the finest, twisted drama usually involving an overindulgence in alcohol. The only thing you have to do, between arrival and being called in, is bring the knitting needles of your equally twisted imagination, a good friend and a cell phone.
Next Up....You're in the exam room, now what?
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