A challenging x-ray appointment

Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling well, so I stayed home from both of my jobs. I called my doctor and I got an appointment to be seen for a chronic cough and continued shoulder pain. The appointment went well and I saw a physician's assistant who gave me the orders to go to have chest and shoulder x-rays. She explained where the lab was and I had no problem finding my way there.

After finding the lab and giving them my insurance information, I was taken to another part of the lab. The woman talked so fast that I wasn’t sure if I’d remember everything, she was telling me. Sometimes this can stress me out and I usually call this, “data overload”. She told me to take my clothes off from the waist up, then put on one johnny with the opening in the front and one with the opening in the back, put my things in a locker outside of the dressing room, then have a seat. I was concentrating so much on her words, determined to not have to have them repeated. I was hoping that she wasn’t seeing the panic on my face, because that is how I was feeling! I went into the dressing room, trying so very hard to remember all of the steps that I needed to do. It seemed to take me longer than I once remembered this taking, but I managed to remember what to do. I left the dressing room and I put my things in a locker, struggled to use the lock, but I finally figured it out and I put the key chain around my wrist.

After this, I went to sit down, but the girl was waiting to take me to the x-ray room. There, I was bombarded with instructions, some that I was noticing needed to be repeated to me. Somehow, I managed to get this done and without me getting upset. That was a wonderful thing! After she completed the x-rays, she gave me verbal instructions on how to get back to the dressing room, which I managed to do okay.

As I was getting dressed, I felt a sense of accomplishment because I felt “normal”. That is because I was able to do this on my own! Yeah me!! I also felt that there might come a time when this process might not go as well on my own. I might need assistance completing it.

My personality is that I’m more of a planner than spur of the moment kind of woman, so I thought about what that might look like in the future. I feel that eventually, I would need to have my primary care doctor's office write something on my orders that would reflect that I might need some assistance.

The problem with that is this, “I don’t want my independence taken away from me any sooner than it has to be, so I will continue to be the best advocate that I can for myself. Another successful adventure and I’m so proud of myself. I know that one day, this could be disastrous and I will just need to take the necessary steps to prevent that from happening!