I haven't driven for years and my husband Peter is my car driver. We have gone down the same road and round the small roundabout and long the road to the A10 so many times but now the route has different significance. The route leads to the North Mid Hospital.
I have increasing awareness of the houses, flats, shops trees, traffic, traffic lights taking on new significance. We turn right and pass the school, often parents and children crowding the pavement, cars double parked and..... carry on a bit further and we arrive at the car-park. so many cars, so many bustling people. Usually it is raining or dull.
The hospital, a tower block, boring architecture, has one of those circular doors that lets many people in a once and usually someone is too far back and so it stops, much to the moaning of everyone. We shuffle forward and here we are! at hospital reception. A large atrium with market stalls and a café and a shops further on.
I learn the different routes over the year.
Route 1: straight till you get to the lift. Up to the second floor and there is the Breast Cancer unit.
Route 2: Turn left, past the hospital charity shop and Costa and Wellspring Cafes turn right to the reception for oncology and radiotherapy. Lots of chairs sometimes this area is crowded with individuals - some looking sad, others lively, others exhausted all waiting in anticipation.
Route 3. Walk around the reception area in Route 2 and then take the lift to the day chemo unit.
Route 4 Take the lift near Costa up to the radiotherapy department where day surgery ops take place.
The maze of the hospital becomes a familiar place especially once I get to know the different people in the different departments. It becomes a well-trod path.
I am lucky the hospital is only a short distance from where I live. Some patients have long journeys to cope with. I feel so lucky that if I need to see my nurse or go to the hospital I can get there easily. If Peter cannot take me I can get a bus from the local tube station to the hospital. So, no transport problems, just get there and be prepared to wait your turn.
Then it is the return journey home.
The repetitious journey continues for nearly a year. The route to the hospital takes on a new surreal experience "here we go again" but it was a chance for preparing whatever I was about to face and whoever I was going to see.
I will never take it for granted again. It is now the route down the road to the Hospital and the underlying path of my Cancer journey.
