Patient with no patience

Cindy and I took her dad Ray down to have blood work done first thing Tuesday morning, Cindy went into the building that houses the doctor's offices and lab to check Ray in, while I brought him inside from the car in his wheelchair.

"I got you checked in Dad, and you are the first one here so it shouldn't be long now." Cindy told her dad as she sat down across from me. And only a few minutes had passed before Ray started looking around and said, "I wonder what is taking so long?"

"It hasn't been long Dad, we just got here." Cindy whispered to him. "Just got here my ass!, I should have been called back already!" Cindy's Dad is not a quiet man anymore, he is hard of hearing and refuses hearing aids, so with this said when he speaks everyone hears him, you know like when E F Hutton used to speak, every head in the room turns to look his way.

"If they don't hurry, I'm just going to leave!", "You can't leave without me Dad, just relax it won't be much longer." Cindy told him just as he was starting to get agitated again. "If I'm first then why am I still sitting out here? They are probably back there having coffee!"

"What time is it! I'm about ready to call a supervisor!" He shouted, "Shhh Dad it is twenty minutes after eight.", "So how long have we been here now?", "I checked you in at 8:06am Dad" "Bull s*#t, we been here longer than that!"", Shhh Dad."

Cindy gets up and walks up to the counter, more to satisfy Ray than anything else, we have been in and out of this office so often that the whole staff knows us well. Cindy asked if there was any way they could tell us how long it would be before Ray was called back, and after checking with the lab she was told that they were having a computer issue. They no longer hand write lab orders with our medical group, the doctors instead key the tests that they want ran into their computers, so whichever lab you go to simply keys in your name and voila there are your orders, that is unless there are computer issues.

"Computer issues!, what difference does that make! You don't need a computer to draw blood!" Ray shouts. And now that there is a crowd of patients gathering in the waiting room, they are all paying attention to Ray.

A man checking in makes the mistake of coughing..."Oh my God, now we have sick people coming in!" He says and the crowd nods their heads. Cindy moves over one seat and appears to not know us.

"Just write my name down with a pencil, the computer don't draw the blood anyway!" A couple of people in the crowd speak "Yeah really!" in unison.

The crowd is listening and nodding their heads in agreement to almost everything he says.

Cindy slides back over and pleads with Ray to calm down "As soon as they get the computer straightened out, you will be the first one called, now settle down Dad, OK"

"Ain't no computer issue, give me a break! They are having coffee, I tell you!"

More nodding from the crowd.

"It's cheaper for them to drink coffee on the company's dime than to have to pay for it! I bet you that's what's going on!"

I could  almost imagine the crowd of Ray's followers holding up their coffee cups and shouting "Dilly Dilly!"

"How long have we been here now, I'm seriously getting ready to leave!" He asks Cindy

"It is 8:30 now Dad, we have only been here about 25 minutes!"

"Oh, is that all...I wonder what's taking them so long?"

I was never so glad to hear the Lab Tech at that very moment open the door and call his name "Ray!"