Nope, I’m not in Jerez. This is that other only time I eat churros – after an early-morning doctor’s appointment. Remember back when I showed you this video and was concerned because it said that to evaluate the progression of knee arthrosis the surgeon needs to see a weight-bearing x-ray, and for the ones taken in August I was lying on a metal table-bed thing.

So I got in touch with my GP (phone appt) and asked if she could request a weight-bearing knee x-ray for me before my next (ha!) surgeon’s appointment. She had a look at the x-rays on her computer and said that the report said they were weight-bearing (con carga), but I told her I distinctly remembered lying down because when they turned my legs to the side it hurt. She said that was for the lateral ones, the front ones were done standing up according to the chart. Which I don’t remember at all. These were done in a mobile unit x-ray station outside the hospital and I was sure I got up on the table and they did both x-rays that way. Or was I? Fuck. Thinking back, there didn’t even seem to be enough room in there to do a standing up x-ray. Anyhow, I convinced her to make another x-ray appointment for me which was today. At 9.00 in the morning at a health centre way the fuck far away.

Last week I tried to change the appointment to a later time (sometimes you can do this online) but couldn’t find a way, nor could I find a number to call. So whatever. It would have to be today at 9.00. I already knew I would spend a mostly sleepless night (and I was right!) but the other thing was that Storm Claudia still wasn’t done with us, though according to the weather office she’d be clearing out by noon today. Damn. Well, maybe I’d have some luck? Spoiler alert – nope.

Well okay, a bit of luck. The early morning torrential downpour eased up around 8.30, when I’d be leaving for the taxi stand on the corner. Still raining, but do-able. Except… no taxis. Not at the stand and the very few passing by were already taken. After it was clear a taxi was not going to happen I hobbled down to the bus stop down by the river (Peter was with me carrying one crutch so I could use my umbrella, though one-crutch hobbling isn’t ideal). Except all the buses were full and not picking up. By now it was already past my appointment time, the rain had picked up and I was soaking wet and ready to give up. Then Peter said “hey I think that taxi over there is dropping off”… SCORE.

If there is any bright spot to my story it is this taxi driver. I knew we’d have to go a round-about trafficky route but we got to chatting and I decided what the hell. It was going to cost a small fortune but hopefully they’d still let me in for the x-ray. By this time I was over a half-hour late. I mentioned this to the driver and he said “ha, you won’t be the only one, even the nurses will have arrived to work late”. He went on to say it would be inhumane for them not to take me, no matter how late. Meanwhile omg this guy could drive. Skillfully weaving and darting all the way. I’m convinced it would’ve taken way longer with someone else and gave him a nice tip, mostly for just being so lovely.

Sevilla has several health centres that are connected to the main hospitals, and some are used for different specialities. I’ve only been to this one for x-rays and mammograms, but I know it well. So I by-passed the main waiting area and went straight to Radiografía, stopped a guy in scrubs and said I’M LATE FOR MY X-RAY. He pointed to a door and said “ask there”. By this time I was almost an hour late, so I knocked on the door and said I’M LATE FOR MY X-RAY THERE WERE NO TAXIS AND THE BUSES WEREN’T PICKING UP… and the lovely x-ray technician looked up at this dripping wet and bedraggled woman on crutches and asked for my name. She clicked around a bit on the computer and said, “yep, your appointment has been cancelled, but just wait a minute”… and five minutes later I was getting my proper weight-bearing knee x-ray done. Phew.

By now both Peter and I were truly soaked through, but we still had to get home. I knew the C4 bus would get us mostly there, and I had a couple of errands to do on the way from the bus stop to home (if you must know, new battery for living room thermostat, returning deadbeat leaky rain poncho, and filling a script at the farmacia) so we opted to do that and then stop off for churros because why the fuck not at this point. Then home to hot showers and dry clothes and… not kidding, then the sun came out.

Trying not to think about how different today would have been had I been able to change my x-ray appt to noon, as I had wanted to. But then I never would have met the lovely taxi driver. Also hoping I was right about not getting the right x-ray in August otherwise, oops.