Continuing from Part 1 (ER Visit: Toronto General Hospital), I make my way to Mount Sinai Hospital as my next ER during the weekend.
So I have to first start out saying:
This was pretty uneventful. But not fully.
I learning from the nurse, in my previous article, that Mount Sinai would have gynecologists was the hope I needed at the moment.
But why is it that Mount Sinai seems to have gynecologists, but not Toronto General?
That’s because it started as a hospital for women to safely deliver babies, so they’re pretty experienced in women’s health. [Source: SupportSinai.ca]
So my odds are looking favourably.
In fact, the wait time is significantly faster than I anticipated, despite it being as much as a hospital as Toronto General.
And that’s when I ask the Triage nurse about the process of seeing a gynecologist.
She said I’d be seen by the ER doctor and then a gynecologist.
Whoo! I’m feeling hopeful!
…Oh, but I shouldn’t have.
I can already hear your ‘sighs’ of defeat on my behalf.
The ER Doctor
The male ER doctor assesses me and refers me to a gynecologist, but not at that moment.
No, instead I’m not allowed to see one.
The reason he gave me is that they’re busy delivering babies.
Not in a transphobic manner, but more so in a “They have better things to do” manner.
Okay. That sucks. My optimism just went up in flames.
But, like I seriously, can’t even talk with a gynecologist for a brief moment?
And later on, I learned I’d been discharged.
Sounding familiar? The ol’ ‘Your situation isn’t a real emergency‘, little trans girl.
That is…annoying. And it sucks that I’m being discharged in the middle of the night too.
Okay, I’ll see if I can kill some time first.
The security guard enquired about my discharge and I let her know I was waiting for the TTC to start running again.
The subway stops at 2 AM, but on Sundays, it starts back at 8 AM instead of the usual 6 AM, something I didn’t know [Source: TTC.ca].
She lets me know of this and seems understanding, but I’ll have to leave at 7:30 AM.
Yeah, that’s fine with me. I actually wasn’t expecting that much leniency.
It gives me some time to get my devices charged for the day as well.
All seems well for that moment. Although, I’m still annoyed that I couldn’t see a gynecologist.
I decided to try one more time to see if I could see a gynecologist, as my entire situation is an emergency.
So I tell this to the Check-In receptionist and she gets up to get more information for me on the matter.
And then, that’s when it takes a turn for the worse.
The ‘No Longer Lientent’ Security Gaurd.
The black female security guard comes over to me not to long after and then pseudo-aggressively tells me that I’ve already been discharged and that I said I was leaving at 7:30 AM.
Are you confused by the sudden tone shift? Because I was.
Like, the fuck?!
I wasn’t expecting her to come and talk to me at all because I was just waiting for the check-in receptionist to come back to her desk.
I wasn’t even sure what to say. Bad enough that I have severe social anxiety when I’m unmedicated.
I was trying to tell her that I was waiting for the receptionist, but was caught off guard (ha) by her sudden attitude towards me.
I see the receptionist returning and try to talk to her instead so I can escape the security guard a bit.
Now I’m thinking, what exactly did me being discharged have to do with me wanting to see a gynecologist that I thought I was going to see?
Maybe the receptionist can tell me because she reiterated what the security guard said, albeit much more nicely.
“Wait, why did you highlight that the security guard was black and female?”
I’m not sure of the term, but there’s a special sense of hostility someone of your own race gives you that they wouldn’t another.
Of course, this isn’t exclusive to being black. In fact, I’m sure plenty of you know what I’m talking about.
But my point is: I picked up on that from her.
How do I know? It’s the hostility I constantly felt living in Barbados.
But I see what’s her problem:
She’s treating me like a *gasp* homeless person.
“Uh, but you ARE homeless.”
I know.
It doesn’t mean I should be treated any lesser because of it though.
But okay, in all fairness, I did seem suspect coming into the ER with my suitcase.
However, the reason it was with me that time is because I didn’t have enough time to put it in storage since the location closed earlier on a weekends.
And the reason I didn’t leave the ER sooner was because it didn’t make sense to go out into the cold until the TTC was properly running.
And while they are night buses running, they’re very infrequent.
“Ha. Are you mad because she was just doing her job, loser?”
Want to know something funny?
Remember the empathetic nurse at Toronto General from my previous article? (Told you I’ll talk about her more).
She was put in the same situation.
Her behaviour? Treated me with the utmost respect.
When I was discharged, I wanted to hang around a little bit to write my article for the website and I asked her if it’s okay that I did.
Her: “Yeah, but I’ll have to kick you out eventually.”
Me: “Yep, that’s fine.”
She even surprised me a little when she showed up sooner than I expected.
Her: “Sorry, [Name], but it’s time to go”
Me: “Oh, that was sooner than I expected.”
She just let me know they can’t just allow people to hang around in the ER.
And that was that.
And checking my location history on Google maps, I left at 4AM.
Ah, I remember: I wanted to kill some time before my storage unit in Vaughn opened. Unfortunately, after I left Toronto General, I was passing out on the tram and train (even dropped my phone without realising it. Thank fuck a TTC worker saw me looking for it lol)
But for full transparency: This was the nurse I confided in after the doctor, so she knew me more personally than the security guard.
“Wait, is it possible that it was instead the check-in receptionist who was being racist?”
It is very possible.
You’re telling me the security guard comes to approach me (with seemingly a stick up her cunt) about me leaving at 7:30 AM right after I told the receptionist I was looking forward to seeing a gynecologist?
That’s a huge coincidence. But it would sadly only hold up in court as circumstantial.
Regardless, I trust neither.
I will give props to the receptionist props though:
Trying to turn black folk against one another so you can feint ignorance for being the cause?
Clever girl.
Haha, nah, I’m giving her too much credit. She probably just wanted me out of her hair, but the security being an asshat to me was a nice bonus she didn’t foresee.
Closing Notes
She probably also didn’t foresee that I would be writing about all of this, because like I said to my friends, I’m documenting everything.
So yeah, don’t go to Mount Sinai unless you’re about to give birth apparently.
But there is one more factor I have not been able to document yet, and that’s the referred gynecologist.
I’ll have to see how that goes.
But also, I really didn’t need that whole ass experience after feeling disgusting because I hadn’t showered for the day, walking forever with my heavy suitcase, only to learn that the public showers that Google Maps told me was there, was only partially true. The washrooms weren’t equipped with a shower, but there was a single coin-operated public shower nearby…that was broken down.
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