Pickup Andropoff (The Russian Chauffer)

Here's a little hint: If a friend is having an out-patient procedure and you have a choice of dropping off or picking up that friend, select the drop-off duty.

Hospitals are funny. If they say they want you there at 1:30 pm, they mean 1:30 pm. The driver can pull up right in front of the hospital at the appointed time as Paula did (I redeemed my free ride), wave sayonara and be outta' there faster than you can say, "Pickup Andropoff."

But that doesn't mean that everything will run like clockwork after that. I was scheduled for my bronchoscopy at 2:30 pm, but, due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, I didn't get wheeled into the O.R. until 5:45 pm.

And then my vitals were slow to recover to the checkout level. After that, I threw another wrench into the schedule by wretching (watch out for that wretch wrench). That meant another x-ray and more observation.

So the estimated 4 pm time of pickup turned into 10 pm. That's just the way it goes sometimes.