Well, what a palava,
As a spinal Nurse I know my neurology, so I knew I had a deficit in my right arm. I had trouble raising it against resistance. After a talk to fellow ex nurse and calming influence Nigel, I went to A&E.
I’ve never been a patient in casualty before.
I hope I’m never there again.
As soon as I arrived a confused elderly lady in a hospital gown, net knickers and a plaster cast tried and succeeded to get out of her hospital wheelchair. She was alone and unsupervised, and would have fallen if I hadn’t intervened. I got her sat down and went to find a nurse.
The nurse said nothing but did move her into the emergency room proper.
I sat down, next to two patients and their families. One was a 93 year old lady who had been in the department 24 hours. Another was a confused elderly man with his harassed wife. They had been in the department since 7 pm the day before.
This was 1 pm
I settled down with a game on my phone.
The confused man kept trying to poke a lady in front with his walking stick, so I engaged him in conversation, he told me he used to breed Bull mastiffs and this introduction cemented us together for the next nine hours where I helped supervise him, toilet him and allowed his wife to stand outside to stop herself from screaming.
I have seldom seen so many vulnerable people in one place before and it was an eye opener
The system is on its knees.
The staff were efficient , my doctor quite lovely, and very apologetic when I challenged the fact my consultation wasn’t confidential as another patient had been sat in the room, but the department looked and felt like a war zone rather than a semi rural Welsh district hospital.
I was called in for head CT whilst my band of brothers in the waiting room held crossed fingers up and waved. They were both waiting for a medical bed when I left the department at nine pm.
My CT was clear, and my bloods were taken.
The doctor still had no idea what the cause of my weakness was so wanted to admit me. I looked at the support worker, who looked tired but valiant at reception, and said what are the chances of a bed on a Saturday night?
She nodded sadly
So I took my leave, nothing realistically would be done I knew that, not over the weekend, so I will refer myself back via my GP on Wednesday. At least the scan is done and It’s unlikely I’ve had a stroke?
The low point of all this?
Apart from seeing a wonderful system stretched to breaking point ?
It was when the cheerful ward clerk popped over to me and amid the carnage of waiting patients asked “I forgot to check is Dr Burton still your next of kin?”
Hey ho
