Waiting
I had the great misfortune last week to have to undergo an operation. Despite being dyspraxic, I have never had any other major medical complaint, no broken bones or no need of being in hospital.
The idea of the operation did not scare me at all, it was the 2 night stay that was most frightening. As like most hospitals, despite their attempt to be as comforting as possible and in the opinion of medical professionals, the "best place to be", they are frankly ghastly, irritating and boring.
However, what has got to be done needs to be done? No matter how much fuss I made, it would not ease me of the discomfort my blocked kidney caused. After my operation, I recover from my dazed state slowly but surely, still being very masculine and disapproving all theories of "taking it easy" and resting.
It is certainly not in my vocabulary to do absolutely nothing. In my world, the pace of life is fast. but this would need to change as I would need to relax. This is really the only thing you can do when you are pinned down in a hopsital bed with a morphine pump, catheter and filter poking out of your anatomy. So in my times of boredom, I can only gauge on repelling hospital food, bask in the glory of my own filth and watch the overpriced television. My frequent family visits are never long stays though, as the terrifying thoughts of car parking haunt them to much.
FACT : Parking at Addenbrookes for an hour is more expensive then parking at The Grafton Centre in Cambridge for 3 hours!
After all that, when Saturday came, I had a wide grin perched on my face. At last, I was free to go. No longer was I a captive, no longer was I being woken every two hours for blood pressure, I could go back to my normality.
Note - I received the news of my departure at 9am.
After the news, I was in very much high spirits. The nauseating feeling of hospitals was rapidly waring off. All I thought of was that I could go home at lunchtime, clean my mental and physical wounds with a hot bath and rich tea biscuits dunked in Tetley tea and my life would be sweet.
Unfortunately, I crashed back to Planet Earth.
Hospitals are frantic locations, I know, but there is a severe lack of communication amongst hospital staff mainly for the lack of English spoken by the hospital staff.
By 11.30, my joy turned to irritance. My hopes of catching the lunchtime news in the comfort of my reclining chair had disentegrated. I even nearly swore but I restrained my potty mouth, for the time being.
At the ridiculous hour of 2pm, I recieved my marching orders. This was in the form of a discharge letter. The letter did not give me any important guidance or information, it just explained the flaming obvious
I COULD GO HOME!
Well, if they had let me go at 9, when they initially told me I could go home, the NHS would save paper and more importantly money and free another bed space, and everybody's happy.
The nurse then kindly asked "Do you want any paracetamol, I can get you some from the pharmacy?"
I wisely said "No" to avoid more Waiting. Unfortunately in the 60th year of the NHS, the issue of waiting has not been dealt with. It is not as severe as tackling MRSA, saving lives or surgical accidents, but it would save a lot of people's money, time and reduce STRESS LEVELS! Think of the blood pressure.
If the NHS had not peeved me off enough in a weekend, on the Sunday I was rushed into to A & E. The reason for this sudden event - I was given a tablet which irritated my stomach. Very helpful indeed.
We waited in hospital for 3 hours, but this was better then others.
TIP - If you ever need to go to A & E, ring an ambulance. Your more likely to be seen quicker, and your wheeled straight through to the dependency areas.
If you ignore my advice and just stroll through the doors, you can be waiting for hours and hours to be seen and still wait more and more hours to leave.
The law is that once a patient has gone through to the A & E and seen by a doctor, they must be seen within 4 hours. Just imagine that waiting 8 hours and then waiting an extra 4, absolute madness.
Of course, I am grateful and would like to thank the Urology team and all who helped me at Addenbrookes for their work, but spare me the waiting next time if you can! It may save a few hairs from turning grey in my senior years!
Published Date:
06/07/2008
Modified Date:
07/07/2008