It’s been awhile since I posted a rant, and yesterday while in the hospital waiting for my gross and vile barium dose of radiation exam, I couldn’t get over the inconsideration of one person.

 

The patient area in the designated hospital area has people awaiting all sorts of glorious tests from CT scans to Angiograms and ultra sounds, all having patients (like me) eagerly and hungrily awaiting their turn and looking forward to getting our tests over with and having a meal. I’m not a real big foodie or anything, but I think there’s some psychological aspect to the rule of no eating after 10pm, waking early and waiting for 2 hours before it’s our turn that makes us think about food just because we can’t eat – or at least, a nice hot cup of coffee.

As I waited my turn, I kept busy reading on my Kindle when a young man walks into the patient waiting area with his steaming hot bag full of McDonald’s fries and some sort of a giant burger he pulled out and began eating voraciously. As the smell wafted through the area and his constant crinkling of the bag and the numerous wrappings taken off his food and scrunched back into the bag kept annoying my concentration, I shook my head in disbelief. All the other patients were eyeballing him just as puzzled as I was.

I couldn’t help but wonder if people don’t even think. It didn’t appear he was with anyone, or possibly he was waiting for someone to finish their test, but regardless, there is tons of seating throughout the hospital and if he couldn’t wait to eat, what the hell was he doing sitting with the hungry and the grossed out people like me trying to suck back my venomous glass of fake flavored chalk?

I continued to look up at him as he chomped furiously on his ‘happy meal’, and I’m quite sure it was when his eyes finally locked with my ‘death’ stare that he got the hint and scrunched up his noisy bag and took off while still chewing and special sauce dripping down his mouth.

 

 

The man was well into his twenties and should have known better. Have we really come to the point where hospitals need to post ‘no eating’ signs in patient waiting areas for gastrology testing. Really? I should think this would be common sense for anyone to know better not to have a feast in these designated hospital areas, but hey, common sense and courtesy seem to be missing in many places these days.

Time to bring back respect and compassion in more ways than one!