Friday 25 July 2008

The highlight of an 8 hour day with the NHS....


Isn't it always to case, you offer to do nice things all the time and the one day someone take you up on it is the day your husband is at work and you've no cash in the house, its 20C and you ironed jeans and warm tops for everyone the night before...

Of course it is, it didn't make me hesitate when a friend asked for help today though, it did of course take me longer to get out the house. Opting to throw my 3 yr old into the buggy and instruct my 6 yr old to walk very fast rather than wait for the bus was the best option and we arrived quicker than expected. The friend in questions has had a seriously bad time in the last 3 weeks, having had a sick newborn for 2 weeks of in-ing and out-ing of hospital her 18 month old decided to take his turn and has spent this week back and forth to our local NHS foundation facility.

After a quick look over him from me and a phone conversation with his GP mum was advised to take him back to the hospital, again should I add? With the assurance that is she wasn't happy with the outcome the GP would refer to somewhere else. So began the day..

After calling my other half home from work to take care of our two we headed up to the children's day care unit. The day went surprisingly fast, little man slept soundly on one of our knees often and we swapped the kids back and forth as they got sick of the helping hand and needed mum. There were many conversations and misunderstandings regarding the various diagnosis, since Saturday when this merry band first graced the doors of the hospital (who's name I will spare the shame....) he has been diagnosed with; anaphylactic shock, uriticaria, erythema multiform, a viral rash, a bacterial ear infection, labrynthitis, and finally suggested myelitis or post-viral irritable hip. Poor little one has just about been through the dictionary.

So after another round of vampirism we wait to see what these bloods say, and the highlight of our day? An otherwise clean-looking cubible, where all the soap dispensers were empty and there were 2 disgarded syringes from the previous patient left lying in the cot. Nice touch I thought... and the ultimate irony? I was on the phone with the head of the woman's & children's services as I tried to get out the door resolving a complaint I had over the standard of care I had received......

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