They still had Christmas trees up at the hospital when we came to visit for an appointment. I was there to assist my parents, but I had time to walk around the building while we waited for our appointment. The white branches of the fake trees reminded me of frost adorned treescapes that are a common sight in winter— it’s incredibly beautiful, and its among my favourite views in nature. There was a station where you could write down a kind wish to the patients in the hospital and hang it up on the tree like an ornament. I didn’t get to take a close look at all the wishes, though they were mostly positive affirmations and prayers. There was one note that stood out to me, “Thank you for letting me spend another Christmas with my family.” The note didn’t elaborate whether the writer got to spend that Christmas outside the hospital, but I guess the scenery doesn’t matter when it’s enough of a blessing to be present in the moment surrounded by family and friends.
I spent most of my time wandering around the building— I’ve never been to this section of the hospital before, and I found out it was attached to a general hospital unit where I was admitted to years ago. I had plenty of time to explore since the machine we were appointed for broke down and backed up the queue; the nurses were really kind and quick to update the patients in the waiting room which I found very considerate. During my walk I ordered a coffee and some snacks for my parents at the Tim hortons they had inside the hospital building. There was also a general cafeteria bistro in front of it, but I opted not to buy anything since we were going to eat out after our appointment. One thing that caught my eye was this angel bear statue sitting outside of a window— I passed by a volunteer explaining some trivia about the statue, but they walked away before I could take a closer listen. One thing I was able to make out was that the wings of the statue were engraved with names; The names are of donors who made a $75 or more contribution towards the project.
It was finally our turn and I got to step inside the room where they held the radiation machine— it was massive! In fact the machine was too large for our client and we had to move to a smaller one for their treatment. I took another walk around while we waited for that machine to get ready and by the time I made it back around to the waiting room, my mom had already left which left me scrambling to find which room they were taken to. Another patient in the waiting room noticed and pointed me to the right direction. They were already in the process of fitting the smaller machine and a nurse prompted me to follow her to the back as we test out the speaker system. The nurse broke down the radiation treatment process to me and explained the mechanics of the machine we were using; it was a smaller model, intended for surface level cancers found on the skin. Unfortunately due to to circumstances regarding the patient’s wound we were unable to follow through with radiation treatment and cancelled the subsequent appointments we have booked.
It’s highly likely we wont be returning to the hospital for a really long while, but in the chance we visit again I hope to donate some of my old wigs to the wig and headwear program— they accept synthetic wigs and the lovely lady at the front desk referred me to a business card if I wanted to learn more about the system.

Lori ✦

Currently Listening to:
Pilotredsun – Bund 6 (Slowed & Low Quality)

Feeling:
Muddled