by Andrea D. Hutchinson

Created on: August 17, 2010

The sleep study was scheduled for Friday night. More like a science experiment, Abby thought. Her tension was coming in rapid sarcastic thoughts. She didn’t relish being a guinea pig, even for improved health. Overweight and newly diagnosed with heart problems, this was a test for the cardiologist.

After a forty five minute drive, through farmland, she arrived at Deborah Heart and Lung Center. An actual, world renowned hospital, with top doctors.

It eight o’clock as she rounded the corner to the sleep center. The half moon building looked like an asylum in a horror movie. A small sign pointed to a set of stairs and a glass door that looked like an entrance to a side wing of an old high school, like in movie Halloween, or Carrie, Abby mused nervously.

She rings the bell on a speaker. A voice, in broken English, asks a question that is all but indecipherable, “are you for the sleep study?”

Abby thinks, ‘Oh God! I’ve seen this movie!’ The door buzzes and she enters.

The hall way is lined with bedrooms, clearly transported from the 70s.  A small gentleman in scrubs appears from an adjacent hallway, clipboard in hand, quickly leading her to a room at the end of the hall. Abby notices there are no other patients on the corridor.  

Asking questions and marking his clipboard, he removes the bedspread.  The techie gives Abby instructions and explains procedures, while opening the bathroom door to indicate her “private” bath. Continuing to instruct, he encourages Abby to change into her pjs, in the bathroom, indicating the cameras, and relax. Leaving, he promises to return to “hook her up”, indicating the monitors, machines and wires to the left of the bed, and then disappears.

“How romantic!” she thinks to herself, chuckling.

Abby settles into the bed, pillows behind her back, book and glasses to her side, between her and the science equipment. When the techie returns, pulling a chair to the side of the bed, he invites her to come and sit. Abby once again recalls a gory scene from some teenage horror flick.

Sitting calmly in the seat Abby begins to ask questions thinking, “All this to find out I actually do sleep sitting up?”. Abby settles into a far more interesting Friday night than usual.

Learn more about this author, Andrea D. Hutchinson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.