But Where Are the Stairs?

I was at the hospital twice last week. Not to worry (at least yet, lol). My hip surgeon sees all his patients at the hospital. That was visit number one. And then visit number two was to have a test to see if my hip prosthesis is getting loose (yes, that's the potentially bad part--I should know more when I go back to see the surgeon at the end of the month and get the results of the test--but it's no use freaking out, whatever the results are...)

So there I was, at one of Canada's largest hospitals, needing to go up just two floors to get to my appointment and looking everywhere for the stairs. No luck. There was an escalator to go one floor up, and a bank of elevators in plain view, but the stairs? Nowhere to be found. That day, I ended up taking the elevator, first to the appointment with the surgeon, then two floors up to book my bone scan, one floor down to get a blood test, one more floor down to book the follow-up with the surgeon and finally one escalator ride down to get out of the hospital.

Two days later, I was back for the bone scan and this time I was set to do some sleuthing. The bone scan was a two-part affair, so I had some time on my hands and yes, I did find the staircase, which I used several times that day.

But here's what really made me laugh. On every floor, there was a little sign to tell people all about how good it is to take the stairs. I've posted one of them above. It says, "When you go up, your blood pressure goes down." There was a whole series. Great messages, good idea, but if you can't find the stairs, what good will it do?

Maybe the next time I go back to the hospital at the end of the month, I'll try and find someone and ask them to post better signage so people can FIND the stairs!!