Swine Flu Fear or Racism?

Today I had to have a kidney CT Scan. It was done as an outpatient procedure in Tanner Hospital. No big deal, but I was 33 minutes late, and had to wait for about 90 minutes for them to squeeze me in; I really wanted to re-schedule but I don't know why. Part of it was I didn't want to have to drink the barium sulfate suspension. To say this stuff tastes nasty, doen't begin to do it justice. Imagine taking two sticks of chalk and grinding them into a powder, then add Philips Milk of Magnesia, now just for giggles add a tsp. of vanilla extract. Put this in a 250 ml bottle and tell people to drink it an hour before they come in.

During this time 2 Mexican women, one of whom was very pregnant came in, each with a little boy about 3. Then another Mexican woman came in with a bunch of little ones. I was annoyed because the kids were all so loud and screechy sounding. I wanted to say use your inside voices and stop climbing on the tables. This is not a playground.

Then I noticed the white people had either been called back for their appointments or had moved like 25 feet away, to the other side, of the waiting area, to the left of the entry doors. I suddenly thought, ‘crap! what if one of these people has swine flu.' So I acted like I was looking for something to read then moved to the other side with the white people. Ironically, the side to which I had moved did have a newer, better selection of magazines.

As more people came in I noticed there would be a momentary pause as the person scanned the situation. All the Mexicans stayed to the right and all the whites and blacks went to the left. Then a Mexican woman wearing a yellow surgical mask came in and went to the window. You could here an audible intake of air bordering on a gasp from all the people on my side of the room. That’s when I thought, "You idiot! You could have caught swine flu, sitting there being polite."

On the 11PM news they reported that Tanner Hospital in Carroll County has confirmed a case of Swine Flu. Here's the problem. I was at one of the two Tanner hospitals in Carroll County today!

I know it's silly but part of me still feels I was being a tad bit discriminatory by moving away from the Mexican people. Then again I have had a weak immune system ever since I had an accidental overdose of radiation to treat Grave's Disease back in 1997. Ever since then I get more ear infections than the average 4 year old.

Ya know what, I'm gonna cut myself a break on this one. The truth is ill behaved children annoyed me even as a child and I think it's normal to be leery of a disease that has no known cure and has reached the pandemic level.