We left at about 0745 because there was snow and sleet in the forecast and as we all know the first snow and ice usually play havoc with drivers. I took some photos , the hills and jura mountains were snow etched and with the rising sun it was beautiful.
We had an appointment for 1030 , the predicted time to get there was about 100 minutes but as you may all well guess Lyon is an enormous city and my daughter was very concerned with traffic jams.
embouteillage in french. I think of that word to mean bottle neck.
We arrived on the outskirts of Lyon by 0930 and then the traffic and the tortuous back streets leading to the clinique despite the gps thing.. took another 40 minutes. When we finally arrived there was no obvious parking and so we phoned the lady who was to meet us, she came to our rescue and put us into a private spot , reserved for her.
The building did not look at all like a hospital. And in fact it was not, but rather a seat of administration for people getting ready for various procedures. We met the receptionist first who in rapid french asked a million questions, fortunately between us we managed to answer, sign. and reassure people that my first name was not charles and jacqueline worth did not work. That double name seems to throw them for loop.. and again we were asked if I was having a hip done. So we became vigilante with the paper work making sure they wrote left knee, genou gauche.. ( should remember g g ). It reminds one that a simple error made by the first person in line can lead to a huge number of mistakes, the ultimate one being that I might wake up with , as far as I can see, a new hip and probably on the wrong side. !!!
Eventually the anaesthetist came out to meet us, a charming man who was delighted to use his english. He asked the usual questions and then taking my blood pressure and looking at my chart he decided that I should be seen by the cardiologist. So the interpreter put a little pressure on reception and instead of waiting until 4 in the afternoon we were told we could see him right away. This was in another building, we said goodbye to the anaesthetist who said he probably was not the one going to be present, but that there were a team of anaesthetists and they would receive all his information.
Outside we traversed a narrow lane way passing into another nonpreposessing building, where we waited for about an hour, I took some photos of the excellent pictures but finally a another charming man appeared. Awiry man who told us said he loved to speak english and had tried to come to Canada to do an exchange but administrators on both sides seem difficult.
He told us that he checked the health of air line pilots.. especially for their hearts to withstand high altitudes.
He then proceeded to ask a bunch of question.. do I smoke.. do I lose my breath.. etc. my daughter and I chatted with him about his languages, his father had been in the military so he had spent time in the US and in Russia thus he told us he spoke fluent english and russian. He wished he had more opportunity to speak the two languages.
So after answering the questions he said he wanted to examine me, "take off your sweater and your bra" so right there in front of him , I removed
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