Carry On Matron

Nurse 'Stacy'

It is so wonderful to be back home to peace and quiet.   The operation to remove half my thyroid gland was successfully carried out on Wednesday afternoon but it was Friday afternoon before I was discharged.  The days of hushed wards seem to have disappeared and there was continuous comings and goings on my eight bedded unit.  Patients were being admitted and discharged into the early hours and I got very little sleep.  So many machines and so much beepage. Beep beep all night long.

I woke from my anaesthetic thinking I was at home and my alarm had just gone off.  I felt quite euphoric that I had survived the ordeal, easier than a trip to the dentist for a root canal.  My neck was a bit sore and I had a plastic tube in my wound; they wouldn’t let me home until it had stopped draining.  A noisy ward isn’t the best place to be but at least I missed some of the building chaos at home for three days.

There was very little formality with the doctors and nurses.  The young registrar (he looked about 12 years old) was called Dr Zhaboa Liu but he introduced himself as Paul.  Stacy, (not called Staff  Nurse anymore) seemed to be the only RGN on duty and was working 13 hour shifts.  She was like a clockwork Duracell bunny constantly trotting from machine to machine and administering medication, totally unfazed by whining and demanding patients.  No white starched aprons and lacy caps here.  On Friday morning she was wearing what looked like a red plastic bin bag printed with “Drug Round in Progress Do Not Disturb”.  When I teased her about it she rolled her eyes and said “don’t even ask!”  I guess the Health and Safety gurus had been visiting.

Stacy wearing her red plastic bin bag

  
So I’m back home and Paul is clearing up after the builders.  He says he likes my husky voice.  Stitches out next Friday and then hopefully I should be back to normal.