Last Half of November

Well Manchester has continued to amaze and astound me. I have had an enlighten time of it in the month of November. The first thing that happened this month that will forever stay with me is the ceremony of Remembrance Day that was held in the city centre of Manchester. I had always either seen it on TV or watched from the side lines with all the other people who had come to pay their respects. This year was to be different, my sister was part of the ceremony and I got to attend as a guest. I was basically standing just behind the army, navy and police representatives who were to lay the reefs down in St Peter square. I got to observe the whole ritual from the inside. This ritual has such a history and meaning for so many people. It was really hard for me to stand with some of the people of Manchester and just observe without disintegrating into tears as the majority of those around me had.
If truth be told I was so proud of my little sister keeping it together and representing her family and community so well. In the end she and some of the other youths who had taken part were greeted by the Mayor of Manchester who gave them badges as a thank you. Their faces were a picture.

We ended up going home really happy and fulfilled, my father attended the ceremony and we had brunch at the town hall with the other guests. We went as a family to see what my sister’s tent was like. If you remember the tent was where the Experience Islam was taking place. My Father was rather impressed with the end result of the tend and the place was filled with people walking round, talking to each other, having health checks, reading the Quran, having mint tea on the floor(!) and generally enjoying the exhibition. . The tent had an exhibition of different national dress as worn by Muslim women. Most people seemed fascinated with this.

I have been working hard as usual. I mean it’s hard to give less than 100% to ill people. You can’t really pretend with them. They tend to see right through you if you put on an act of caring. Most of my patients and colleges are easy to get along with and easy to look after. But as with everything there are exceptions to the rule. I normally have ten patients to look after and NORMALLY all of them are lovely and easy to nurse and get on with. Last Friday things changed, something that had not happened for at least a year happened. I cried. Let me start at the beginning of this episode. This particular person had been my patient for a few weeks and I swear I used to dread visiting times. Although the patient was lovely, his family was the stuff of nightmares. Especially the daughter. She just has this thing where she just has to pick holes in everything. She was just a natural born complainer but also a female dog!!! Anyways the day dawned when this patient could go home. Only problem was that no-one thought to tell his nurse (ME!!). First I knew about it was when the family turned up at 1230pm. I guessed by the fact that they had come early (normal visiting times starts 2pm). I ran around like crazy, I literally bent over backwards trying to help my patient go home as early as possible. This is the conversation that followed:-

Female dog: Some one rang me to say come collect my father. WHY is he not ready?
Meek Nurse (me): I only found out at 1230. It’s gonna take me a while to sort out his discharge. I need to sort his meds, dressings, district nurse letter and appointment at clinic. Just bear with me.
Female Dog: I AM SICK of this HOSPITAL and it’s incompetent STAFF.
Meek Nurse: It wasn’t me who spoke to you and I am trying to get things done as fast as possible to make it easier for your father.
Female Dog: I AM SICK of your PATHETIC excuses.
Meek Nurse: I AM TRYING MY BEST (the ward went quite). I would appreciate it if you did not shout at me. I understand that you are angry but direct it at the right person.
Female Dog: I AM NOT SHOUTING AT YOU!
Meek Nurse: WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING THEN?!!!?

At that point when I had made suitably shame faced and I had basically won. I felt something on my cheeks. Hot, wet tears were falling on my face and I wasn’t even aware of it till I felt the wetness. I turned on my heels and walked off. Straight pass the other nurses, docs and people around the ward and into the bathroom. I stayed there for a full 10 minutes till the stupid tears stopped.
I managed to sort all the problems out and was able to discharge my patient. Did she apologise? No she did not! Some people are like that and no matter what they will not admit they are wrong.

There are some other episodes that I would love to write about like the little Asian lady who insulted me just because I offered her help. I’ll save that and the bus Scarabs continuing story for another day InshaAllah.