Pre-op appointment today ...
45 minute wait for the lady who did the paperwork. She was polite enough but I was very uncomfortable signing the electronic pad instead of an actual paper. She told me what the documents were I was signing for and said I could have copies if I want them but most people dont. There was no opportunity to read anything I was signing for. She said "it's all here in this book" but the information didn't jump from the book into my head. It just doesn't feel right to have someone sign a blank screen similar to a credit card terminal for something as important as surgery. All the legalese in the world won't hold up in court if not shown to a signer so they may as well forfeit signatures all together.
Then back to testing waiting room. 5 minute wait for blood draw. Not bad.
3 minute wait for x-ray. Very good. But I was not provided a gown for a chest x-ray. I was told to take my bra off and leave my shirt on and she didn't leave the room. I was very uncomfortable trying to have a conversation while flipping around wriggling out of my bra. She was planning on standing there watching me dress afterward but I asked her to step out and she did.
About a 5 minute wait to see the admitting nurse. "Have you ever had a ..." Uh that's what I'm here for. "Oh." Followed by equally dumb questions that had already been answered on the form laying right in front of him. Cockroaches in his office and a glue board full of them in the corner. Not what I'd call clean and inviting. He left the door cracked open for those personal questions and another employee came in talking and eventually noticed me there and said sorry.
Overall everyone was crazy friendly. Like too happy and too friendly. It felt like they were trying to force sick people to pretend they weren't.
It was a fairly quick and efficient process even with the very repetitive questioning.
But the lack of privacy and the cockroaches left me really concerned about checking in for surgery in a couple days...