English 1106 Lay of the Land

8/9/2019 English 1106 Lay of the Land

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Sarah Brown

English 1106Williams

February 28, 2010

Life in a Hospital Unraveled

Its a typical Blacksburg late afternoon with chilly air trailing in behind me

and sirens sounding as I walk through the automatic glass doors to the hospitals

main entrance. The smell of hand sanitizer strikes my senses to my nose, quicker

than it did from the time

before. Reminding me why I

brought a bottle of sprite in

my bag for my stomach. From

the main entrance that took

me down the long winding

hallway to the waiting room, I noticed the lights from the ceiling were dimmer than

they were before. Beneath the flickeringlights, patients wait where they are seated

separately into different categories according to their chronic illness. On the left

arepatients with sickness and the right for people in need of physical examination.

Greeting the secretarial nurse Kimberley, who I had introduced myself to before

waves me over, with her perfectly white and straight smile. Seeing the exhaustion

on her face, I knew she had worked another extra shift; reminding me of her

tiredness from the previous visit. Sitting in her seat with light pink pants and nurse

shirt she hands me a small mask before I take a seat. Notifying, that I should cover

my face since more patients were chronically sick rather than needing first aid.


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Sitting down, I blended in with the patients that needed to be physically

examined, hoping I wouldnt get sick from the other patients on the opposite side of

the room. Different groupssat waiting to be seen by the soonest available doctor,

while silence remains throughout the room. I come across different magazines

sprawled across the coffee table in the center of the room. Reaching over, no one

seems to be disturbed or curious

about my starring and nosey

observations. I decide to sit next to

an old woman in all white, sleeping

with a can barely grasped between

her frail fingers and oversized rings.

She makes me grin, reminding me of my grandmother who wore the same type of

tacky jewelry while sleepingin chairs, after she was diagnosed with Alzheimers

disease.

I carry on to observing the people in the waiting room, some more tolerant

than others. With various ages and groups, there are people who have looks of

emotional concern and anxiety, while others seem calm and fully rested. The two

men that sit in front of me discuss World Series Baseball and player Sammy Sosa,

having no rush to see a doctor

anytime soon; being wrapped up in

their conversation. The man

speaking on the right with his New

Yorker accent wears a blue polo that


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has Yankees on the pocket corner and kakis withbrown Sperrys on the bottom.

While the man listening on the left, dresses down more casually in black sweatpants

and an orange Virginia Tech long sleeve and tennis shoes; obviously a more down to

earth type of guy.Both men seem to be similar in age, around young fortys having

the discussion of all time players and favorite teams, making their comparisons

more compatible.While a young couple to the left, looking in theirmid-twenties,

sitholding hands and whispering to one another with atone of distress. The young

man is wearing light blue smocks and hospital socks, as if he is going to get an MRI

doneor possibly surgery. While the young girl, seemingly a girlfriend. Hugs him

wearing dark skinny jeans with uggs and a brown North Face. Across the room,

sitting in a corner sits a different story for being at the hospital. Looking up at the

sealing while sprawled across two seats, a little boy singsThe Lion King while is

mother down a few seats flipsthrough an Oprah magazine; assuming she had

grabbed it from the table that had them sprawled out before. She tells her son,

Michael in a low voice, but with enough of a stern tone to stop singing and sit up

patiently. Michael listens and rises to his mothers orders, but than begins to sing the

theme song Sponge Bob Square Pants whileswinging his legs back in forth, for he

was still too small to touch the ground. About twenty minutes later a man walks in

with a suit and tie next to Michaels mother and gives her a slight kiss on the cheek.

She smiles, they were clearly married. Once the tall gentlemen sits and high fives

Michael, his mother waves goodbye and exits the waiting room. Michael, still singing

to Sponge Bob Square Pants looks over at his father who does the opposite of his

mother, and decides to sing along. Father and son clearly have a more humorous


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relationship. The man wears a nametag of Greg around his neck, assuming he came

from a work affair. Five minutes later, the doctor calls the name Michael Beck and

the pairstands up, to exit down the small hallway towards the examination rooms. I

feel disappointed, becoming slightly attached to the duo, reminding me of the goofy

relationship I have with my father at home.

Looking back at the men who had been discussing baseball, they each open

theirwallet. Both containing a wrinkled old-fashioned baseball card. I assume they

were still on the same topic. I then look behind me to see Kimberley and spot that

she has finally been replaced with an older woman in all purple vs. pink smocks. She

goes by the name Gladys. Kimberly, who smiles every time someone walks into the

waiting room, greets the patient and politely asks him or her to please sign in. She

appears to be involved and passionate for her job, even when she has to take her

daily shift as a boring secretarial nurse. She answers the phones asking potential

patients how their day is and the most convenient time for there appoint. Whereas

when Gladys works her shift, she socializes with the other nurses behind the desk,

as she types away at the computer.Although she isnt as animated as Kimberly, she

seems to be more practiced and wise with her occupation being a professional.

Being older than most of the doctors, Gladys doesnt seem to have the slightest care

in impressing any doctor as they walk by.

After observing the working

nurses and patients in the

waiting room, I begin to look

around at how the hospital is


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constructed. I notice that on every public door that has a label such as ladies room,

pharmaceutical, or hearing room; there is brail underneath the tag, for those who

are blind. I also realize that for each hallway, there is a color that is designated to

specific types of patient care. Such as the green hallway for patients needing

treatment for cat scans and MRIs, while the blue hallway assists the ICU (intensive

care unit) patients. Throughout the hospital there lays cushioned chairs and small

love seats for people to conveniently take quick naps or

read a book in, while theywait. Designed for where there

is seat, there is a cross-hung on a wall, with dim and

beautiful yellow lighting shining below it. I think the

hospital is deigned that way, reminding patients and

people that anything can happen if you surrender

yourself to be guided through the grace of God. I decide to

sit in one of the cushioned seats in the dimand warm lighting, finding myself

entranced in the woman sleeping in a seat beside me. With a navy blue and gray

baseball cap, short sleeve t-shirt, and yoga pants; I assume she has been staying in

the hospital for quite some time. In front of us, I see a machine that holds drinks and

snacks to the right of it. I decide to buy a Dasani water and bag of pretzels to leave

for the woman in desperate need of sleep and probably nourishment.

Further down the hallway the tiled floor turns into carpet and I notice a small

church through two wooden doors at the end. Praying, there sits the mother of

Michael, who had left the waiting room earlier in the second row. I realize that she

hadnt left because her patience was low, but that she sought a moment of silence.


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She notices me, remembering me from the waiting room and smiles as she exits the

small church. I begin to understand that within the hospital what people portray

themselves as, or perceive to be, lays a form of hidden strength and a story.

As I leave the church, back towards the chaotic end of the hospital, I walk

back past the machines and find the woman sleeping, awake and drinking out of the

Dasani bottle while talking on her cell phone. I make my way further down the

hallway and see the gentlemen that was dressed in the all blue smocks lay on a

hospital bed being wheeled to the elevator. He kisses a cross on his neck and tucks it

beneath his clothing. Finally taking the last corner back to the waiting room, I notice

a blackboard with a small boy trying to reach for a sticker that hangs too high. I

assist him in reaching for a small bear sticker. He decides to place it at the tip of his

nose making my giggle out loud. Without looking at him, I prepare to ask him how

old he is; until the door from the waiting room swings open and its Michael dad. He

calls him buddy and grabs his hand, quickly nodding to me as he walks by. Watching

them go from behind, like a silhouette in a Western movie, Michael asks his dad if

they can stop off atBurger Kingbefore they head home. A sure buddy is responded,

as they exit the doors from the hospital, back into the chilly air of a typical

Blacksburg afternoon.

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English 1106 Lay of the Land