So, I had my 30-week check-up today at the hospital. I had made an appointment with my doctor prior to going as I know how chaotic the hospital gets and sometimes even if you have an appointment, you still have to wait for all the people who arrived before you to finish before you can go in.
I left home at 9.30 a.m and took an auto rickshaw to the hospital (which is only about 5-10 minutes away). I arrived there just after 9.40 a.m and went inside to queue up at counter 6A for my test results (from the tests I had done the last time I visited). Luckily the queue wasn’t too bad and I picked up my results and went up to see the doctor by 9.45. The waiting room wasn’t too bad – there were only about 10 people in it (and there were three doctors on duty). So, I made it in to see the doctor at 10.10 a.m.
My appointment went really well and she said the baby seems to be developing fine. We chatted briefly about the labour and what I wanted and she told me next time I go in to take my birth plan with me. She is very open minded and told me she will try to make the labour as comfortable as possible, which is why she wanted to know how I felt about different things. I am so happy with my doctor; she is really lovely and puts me right at ease whenever I see her. She gave me the prescription for my second tetanus shot and also a prescription for an ultrasound, which she wants to do in two weeks time.
I left her room, paid the doctors fee and then went outside to the Pharmacy Counter to pay for my tetanus shot. I waited there for 10 minutes while the guy working at the counter went off to another place to get the shot, syringe and needle. It’s so weird how it works here – you have to pay for everything first! He brought it all back and then I had to go to another place with the bag of stuff for the injection and gave it to a nurse who administered it. She was very good and I didn’t feel a thing and actually, even now, a few hours later it’s not hurting like it did last time.
After the shot, I had to go up to the second floor to book my appointment for my ultrasound. I told the woman I needed to make an appointment for two weeks time and showed her the script (which had a date at the top for when my appointment should be). She told me I had to go and pay for it first. I questioned this, asking her ‘Do I have to pay today or can I pay when I come for the appointment?’ She looked at me like I was daft and told me I had to go and pay for it now. I got the money out and she said ‘No, not here – first floor, cash counter’.
So, off I went again down the stairs to the first floor and queued up to pay for the ultrasound. The queue just wasn’t moving at all and it was really, really hot. I went up to the counter to ask the woman what was taking so long. She told me the computer was broken. I gave up waiting to pay and went back to the ultrasound counter. I explained to the two women there that the computer was broken and asked if I could just pay when I came back (for the appointment). They both said ‘No, no, you must pay now’.
I was starting to lose my patience, but I thought, I might as well get this done and get the appointment made while I am here otherwise I’m only going to have to come back again and it’ll be worse if I just turn up without an appointment. I went back to the cash counter. The queue still hadn’t moved and the woman behind the counter was stood doing nothing. I went up and asked her if there is another cash counter. She said: ‘Ground Floor, counter 4’. So, off I went to the ground floor.
When I got downstairs I could not believe my eyes. There were people EVERYWHERE! There wasn’t space to move. People were just standing around in every part of the room. I managed to push my way through to counter 4 and there were 3 very long queues. I joined one of them and prepared for a long wait. Just then one of the hospital staff asked me to move to a queue around the corner. There were only 5 people in it, so I joined it gladly.
By the time I was 3rd from the front, the queue behind me was as big as the other queues. This man walks up the corridor and goes straight to the window with his prescription. No-one said anything, so I piped up ‘Excuse me’ (no response), ‘Excuse me’ (still no response from the man but other people were looking at me); so I said even louder ‘Excuse me, there is a queue’. The man just looked at me and said nothing and kept waving his prescription at the man behind the counter. I was furious that no-one else was saying anything. It was only when the guy behind the counter was going to take this man’s prescription before the man in front of me, that he said ‘Line! Line!’ The man looked up, as if seeing all the people for the first time and said ‘Oh, Line!’ and went to join the back of the queue.
I paid for my ultrasound (finally) and went back upstairs to the second floor. I handed over my receipt and said ‘Now, can I make an appointment?’ She gave me a form to fill in while she entered my details into the computer. She then looked up and said ‘Wait over there; I’ll call you when we’re ready for you’. I looked at her puzzled and said ‘No, I need an appointment for the 25th – in two weeks time’. She looked at me as if this was the first time she’d heard me say it and said ‘Oh no’. She’d already entered all the information in the book for me to have an ultrasound today. I told her that I had explained all this to her the first time I came to the counter and the date on the script was even circled in black pen. Anyway, between the three of them behind the counter, they managed to sort me out with an appointment. Finally!
I left the hospital at 12.15! Caught a rick and came straight home! What an experience!
