Marian

Lots of good ideas there. Thank you everyone. Your collective creativity is very helpful. (Now if we could only apply it to the current economic situation...)

No way would my son do this procedure when awake. He is not the sort who would be able to cooperate. I think most people aren't. (Katie Couric is a rare exception.) He needs the test to determine whether some fairly severe gastrointestinal symptoms he has been having in recent months might be due to inflammatory bowel disease. He's being treated for something else now, but the doctors are mostly guessing at what the problem is. There's little point in treating someone for the wrong problem. Thus, the test is important. But I suspect that the symptoms he has been having would make the procedure more painful than it would be on an average middle-aged person who's simply being screened for polyps.

The medical transportation service idea seems like a good one. Certainly, before my son's appointment with the gastroenterologist, I will suggest that he bring up that idea at the doctor's office. He would probably prefer it to imposing on a near-stranger during a time when his closest friends are out of town. It would be different if a close friend were readily available, but his closest friends are older graduate students who are doing summer internships elsewhere.

Another option has occurred to me in the course of the evening. We actually do have a relative in California, living a 2 1/2 hour drive away from my son. But she has medical problems of her own, which greatly limit her ability to drive. However, I have been wondering whether it might be possible for her to come to my son's community by train, using taxis for local transportation at both ends of the train trip -- although it would probably require at least one night's stay in a motel (at my expense, of course). She has time (she is currently out of work on disability because of her medical issues), and she would want to help if she can. But it might not be possible because of her health. I have left messages for her, and we'll see whether this option is workable. The nice thing about this, if it could work, is that she is also a single person living on her own, just like my son, and I'm sure that occasions would arise when my son could help her out in similar ways. That sort of cooperation is how stuff gets done in this world.

At most facilities that I know of, it's considered OK to take a cab as long as your human escort goes with you in the cab. For people who don't have cars, this may be the only option. But you can't take a cab alone. Taking a bus, even with a human escort, would be difficult even if permitted. Sometimes people are let go while they're still really goofy.