Chapter 3: SOMETHING IS WRONG

APRIL 2001
I had been in denial long enough; it was time to get my follow-up mammogram. I had a morning appointment, so off to MH I went. My first stop was the out-patient check-in, the supervisor and staff was playing some kind of fantasy vacation game while checking-in the patients. It was funny when they yelled out their vacation fantasies.
“I want a beach!” said the young pretty girl with a short skirt.
“No!” replied a young man who was trying to grow a mustache. “Snow, I need snow, so I can go skiing.” The supervisor’s desk was covered with Travel brochures and she started reading from one of them: “Aruba had miles and miles of beaches…” The young woman checking me in added her own comments to the fun…"must have drinks with umbrellas…" I could relate-drinks with umbrellas, beaches, mountains, I would rather be someplace/anyplace else, other than in the hospital. I left the out-patient check-in department laughing; little did I know it would be the last time that I would laugh for a long time.
I checked-in at the radiation department then sat down in the waiting room. There was a soap opera on the TV, which I found very annoying because I was trying to read a serious non-fiction book and I kept finding myself peaking guiltily at the silly drama unfolding on the television. A few minutes later a woman came into the waiting room and called my name, or a close proximity to my name. The spelling of my last name and the pronunciation have little to do with each other.
“Hi, my name is Sheila, and I will be you technician today.” Said the woman leading me through the maze like halls. Sheila gave me warnings before she turned. “Right” she said before she turned right, “left” she said next before she turned left, all the while keeping up banter of conversation. I liked this because I was able to walk beside her instead of following her, and I never crashed in to her once.