A Visit to a Canadian Hospital (cont.)

Richard is Released and Elaine is Astonished

The doctor turned to the nurse and said, let him go, and walked on to some other medical task. The nurse removed the IV needle and walked away. Richard waited for a few minutes and the nurse returned with his clothes, dropped them on the bed, and walked away. Richard dressed himself after removing the monitor pads, a task which involved a certain amount of chest hair loss accompanied by a bit of pain.

Richard sat on the side of the bed for a few minutes waiting for assistance as is normal in US hospitals. A nurse walked up carrying bed linens and told him he was free to go. Richard asked how he was to leave and the nurse told him to go through the door, take a left and walk down the hallway to the stairs, go down the stairs to the ground floor and then take a left to the outside door.

Amazed, Richard realized that unlike the overly solicitous exit behavior of a US hospital, since he was pronounced well, he was being given the boot. So he walked through the door, down the hall, down the stairs, and out the hospital entrance where he climbed into a cab which dropped him off at the hotel where the adventure had begun.

Richard then drove his rental car to the airport where he met his astonished wife at the gate. After picking up Elaine, Richard drove to the Ottawa lab where he picked up his suitcase.

Though Richard suggested flying back Sunday so that they could spend a day in Ottawa, Elaine said that she wanted to get back home as soon as possible. Saturday evening, Richard and Elaine flew back to Atlanta.

Since Richard had taken the MARTA rapid transit train to the airport they had only Elaine's car to worry about. They walked out of the Atlanta terminal to where Elaine had parked her car. Driving home was a bit awkward. Elaine insisted that Richard drive as she did not feel comfortable driving at night on the freeway. Since Richard had lost his glasses he wasn't seeing that well in the darkness due to his astigmatism, a condition which impacted night driving because headlights appear splatted looking a lot like the blobs of light which van Gogh painted in his later years. As they drove around and through the connecting roads from the terminal parking to I-85 and then home, Elaine read the road signs for Richard as he drove.