Lost in changed medical buildings

Editor’s note: The following column originally ran in the Sept. 30, 2010, edition of the Daily Mail.

There are many places in my life that I remember vividly. I can picture each wall of a certain building, remember the houses on a certain street, or walk in memory down several miles of country roads without ever feeling confused. But put me in those same places after there has been a remodeling or road changes and I get disturbed by trying to remember just how it used to be.

That happened to me recently when I was having several tests done at the Nevada Regional Medical Center. I used to go in the front entrance and go briskly to the cafeteria, where one of my groups used to meet on special occasions. Now that front entrance is sort of an extra entrance.

When I was looking for a certain doctor’s office, I was told to go in the old hospital entrance. That was easy. I certainly remember the old hospital. I gave birth there to our second son. My mother spent several days there in her last months. I remembered it well.

However, that building that faces South Adams is not what my guide was talking about. She was talking about the new, old hospital that faces South Ash beside the newer building.

OK, I remember that building well also. My sister was a patient there several times and I visited her often. I could remember where the nurses’ stations were, as well as the different rooms.

So, we go to that building with some kindly directions by friendly staff, and find that it isn’t the same at all. The lobby for the different services is probably where the nurses’ stations used to be. But I can’t be sure. It looks different.

But when we were led to an examining room, I knew it was the same old “new hospital.” The room obviously had been a patient’s room, complete with the double lockers, a private bath and a noisy air conditioning system under the windows. I could almost picture my sister in one of the beds looking out the window. Except her windows were farther east in the hall.

As I was perched on the examining table waiting for the doctor, I had to open the doors of the lockers and bath just to verify everything in my memory. Yep, these were the rooms. Now I felt oriented again.

As we went down the elevator I told Lester that I was beginning to feel at home; it is a nice place to visit but I didn’t want to stay there.

But later when I went for some tests in other remote areas, I got completely lost again. The room for such special services was closed, and a sparkling new area has been provided. When I came out, a bit lightheaded from the tests, I didn’t know which way to turn. But a passing staff person gave me directions.

The tests showed nothing drastically wrong with me, which was good news, but I was told I might need to avoid stressful situations. Nothing is more stressful than not knowing where you are going. And it is even more stressful when you don’t know where you are going in a familiar place. It’s like my familiar nightmare of not knowing my locker number on the first day of school and my schedule is inside the locker.

On a happier note, at least I wasn’t trying to find my way around my first hospital experience in Nevada. The really OLD hospital, Ammerman’s, on the corner of West Cherry and South Ash would have been really confusing to me now.