A had not been well for over a week; visits to the doctor and tests gave no definite answer.We wait in the lower circle of hell, A&E, for several hours before being dispatched to the purgatory of the assessment unit for several hours.
We watched the changeover of the shifts move about the ward like a caravan traveling in camel like fashion. Eventually it appears at the bed next to us. The elderly woman in the bed is confused, weary and probably just wishes to lay her head, finally, in a place where she will be looked after.
The outgoing, ehem, nurse explains that it is not possible to move the woman to a ward until there is a bed free and there will only be a free bed when a patient goes home or goes to..... Wisdom and sensitivity intervene and the nurse moves on to more pressing matters.
I look at A feverish exhausted and at the end of her tether and can't resist whispering that I am glad the nurse left that sentence unfinished. I receive a weak dig in the ribs and we both 'corpse' into fits of giggles. The matronical caravan passes with a collective look of confusion on its face!
After several days, in what A describes as Bedlam, pneumonia is diagnosed and she returns home with enough antibiotics to bring down avian flu at 50 paces!
