Back to the past.. for a moment

View from the Four Seasons hotel in Riyadh. The hotel is pretty awesome and amazing views certainly prove it. New high rise buildings have appeared in the horizon. Of course the first thing I was searching for was The Hospital. I know where it is, but could not see it. Not at night, not in the morning. Could the hospital have vanished without a trace....? That would have been the very best option.

But no. Next morning I found myself sitting in a taxi driving toward The Hospital. I hate seeing it and nothing in or outside that hospital structure provides any comfort. My one and only task was to find the outpatient building (ok, same location, same floor, same room), see the doctor (nice to see ya... not), book the next appointment (AWWWW NO NOT ANOTHER ONE). Can we check your height and weight? NO. Blood pressure? Sure. 155/91 (I really and truly hate this place). Do you have fever? No. 36.7 C (despite of the fact that it was well above +40 C outside and I was boiling with heat and anger and disgust and fear). They probably will now document in the file that "patient was not cooperative". Go ahead, document what you want.

End result is that I will need to return to The Hospital in October. They want to do the final thyroid whole body scan. If it was just the cutting edge scan and no blood tests, no time wasting doctor's appointments, I'd probably be ok. The fact is that it's all inclusive, all comes in one package, same price for all. Once again, they will document that patient was reluctant to co-operate. I get it that they are trying to help me, but they too could be little more understanding and kind. I get it that it's a hospital and some people think working in hospital gives you the right to treat patients like dirt. Definitely not inform them of any delays. Definitely delay them even more if you can. Add to that being relentlessly rude and patronizing. Not all staff do that at all, of course. Thank God that they don't. 

Travel to The Hospital AKA torture chamber annoys me most. Waiting times piss me off. Queues everywhere are a real turn-off. Waiting areas are sterile, aged and tired and there are no seats. Then there is a sign "Do Not Wait in The Corridor". Well, smart pants, tell me shall I wait outside then..?!?

In preparation for the scan, low-iodine diet looks forward to meeting me www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/patient_education/pepubs/lo_io_diet.pdf. Thyrogen injections are eager to attack me with that very sharpest needle. www.thyrogen.com/ Awesome. I can't wait. Just makes me wonder how far I could push it with the low-iodine diet. How strict must one really be? What if I all of a sudden start craving for pasta, cereal, chips and all that Thou Shall Not Eat? One or two mouthfuls probably won't hurt? Once again "patient is non-compliant" will be documented in my file.
There are three more questions I need to answer too: What if I don't go at all? No scans, no appointments, no follow-up.What if I go, but walk out?What if I just don't go, cancel all appointments, scans, needlesticks etc.

I may come up with answers one day, sooner or later, before October arrives, but before that I may need to read my own survival guides I wrote in the blog in 2012 and 2013. Will I survive by reading my own survival guides?