Frustrations of the day

15 December 2009

I had an appointment to draw blood this morning for some routine tests.
I rode the bicycle to the place, it was cold, but it is such a nice ride: from my apartment along Viale Luzzati all the way to the walls of the city, then along the walls and along the river, through the little green area where all kinds of birds and even three funny goats play in the grass and the water; through the old city gate of Porta San Tommaso and right into the heart of city life as the Tuesday market was setting up.

The contrast with the new technology and the old bureaucracy is unnerving and ironic at the same time. You go in and there is the little number distributor so that everyone has to wait his turn in order, but there is a clerk handing you the numbers, as you are too stupid to get it yourself as you do at the supermarket (same distributor, by the way).
Every time you fill out a form they give you a ream of paper about privacy and all that crap, but as you hand in your urine sample and the paperwork with all your tests they allow the next in line to lean over the counter and look and listen to your business.

Now I have my number and my paperwork, so I sit and sheepishly wait until my number appears on one of the display on top of 5 or 6 doors disposed around the walls of the waiting room. Of course the numbers are not in order and every time a new number appears this annoying “beep” pierces your ears. It is close to freezing outside, but quite hot in the crowded waiting room, I am glad to see that a few windows are cracked so some air can circulate and hopefully dispose of some of the germs from all the people coughing and sneezing, so I think as I sit myself on a chair next to one of these windows, just as someone wearing a lab coat reaches over me to close it mumbling “so that you don’t all get sick”. What a modern medicine concept!

My number finally flashes on the display accompanied buy one more irritating “beep” and I enter a room with a few tables and chairs in front of them. I see a nurse behind one of the tables, I say a cheerful “good morning” and ask if I should approach, she nods. As I try to juggle my coat, my bag, my hat, my gloves, and the ream of paperwork, I hand the nurse the number (last time I was in a medical facility I made the mistake of assuming the numbers were just to help keep track of who’s turn it is, so once my number was called I just crumbled up the useless piece of paper and stuck it in my pocket.... I was scolded that I should hand it in because they somehow track them... For whatever useless statistic purpose.) I hand in the silly piece of paper with a smile and the nurse who still has not answered my greeting looks at a point around my chin and says snidely “I need the paperwork, Signora” then quickly moves her gaze somewhere behind my shoulder and adds “otherwise we are just going to look each other in the eyes”. It takes me a moment to process the information, I reach into my bag, hand her what she asked for, then proceed to sit, roll up my sleeve and stretch my left arm on the table. As she sticks the needle in my arm I hear myself saying out loud, very politely and still with the smile ( that is really just a reassuring device to myself since I have not eaten in 15 hours and I am terrified I will faint) “was the last comment really necessary?”. She looks me in the eyes for the first time and blurts “what?”. “Just asking for the paperwork should have sufficed” I say, “it is simply a matter of good or bad manners”.

Now I am getting light headed as she lowers her eyes and fills vial after vial with my deep red blood. No further conversation is necessary as she places a thick cotton ball on my arm and tapes it around my elbow. I leave the room, thinking what a difference a smile and a stupid remark can make in someone’s day. I decide to not let it ruin my, so I make eye contact with everyone in my way, smile and deliver a cheerful “buon giorno”.

I know, I am such a pain in the world’s ass!