Hospitals and sunsets
October 20th, 2006Aaron requested some further explanation about the hospital I almost got treated at (see the previous post), so here it is. Also, I promised to post some more pics from vacation. I really wish I had a photo of this hospital, but that wasn’t really the first thing on my mind when I was headed there, if you know what I mean. Here’s a satellite photo, once again courtesy of Google Earth:
It was one story high, built with concrete block, and painted blue. Parking was pretty slim. But that was okay, since there was barely anyone there. According to the front desk lady, though, they were “busy”. Which is probably why there was only one other guy in the waiting room when I left. They were busy enough, though, that it would take “over an hour” for them to see me. At least the entrance was easy to find, thanks to an arrow and the words “emergency room” scrawled freehand in red paint on the side of the building. Anyway, something in my (sting-ray poisoned) mind objected to paying an emergency room copay for someone to take 90 minutes to give me a tetanus booster shot and send me on my way. Now, let me clearly state that I am not complaining. If I was seriously hurt, I would have been deeply thankful for this crazy little hospital. As it was, I experienced a mixture of frustration and humor, and I decided the better part of wisdom was to suck it up, go eat dinner, and wait to see if I really needed medical attention that badly, or if I would survive.
For comparison, here is the hospital 5 minutes from our house (notice the size of the cars for perspective):
For another comparison, take the number of full-time nurses (according to one web site): Rush Copley: 187. Unnamed rural Florida hospital: 9. Seriously, would you go there unless you had to?
Well, enough on that. Like I said, the rest of the vacation was fantastic. By the way, while rural Florida hospitals sometimes leave something to be desired, rural Florida sunsets rock:
But Illinois isn’t that far behind. We see some pretty crazy/strange/beautiful sunsets from our deck. Like this one:
The only thing that’s missing is the ocean… :)
These stingrays are getting entirely out of hand :) Glad you made it back from vacation and backwoods medical care.
if I’m reading you correctly, and I think that I am… you’re saying that you have giant land sting rays in Illinois, and that your uber-hospital is inundated with the bloody masses suffering from the last onslaught of roaming packs of the giant ravenous land sting rays… thats incredible. Thank God they cannot travel uphill and thus I am safely protected behind the Rocky Mountains. But how long until they evolve into giant ravenous land string rays with teradactyl wings and talons?
Oh Aaron…why does that remind me of rabid rabbits, and carrots with guns?
Love Mom Mason
j & acb: Exactly. I mean, these things are out of control. It’s not the giant land rays I’m worried about (some folks and I decided this would make a great horror movie), it’s the flying “flopping” ones. Have you read about this??
mom: Definitely – I feel another mural coming on. Hey, if you send me a picture of that wall, I’ll post it!
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