A rough guide

a nurse and a day patent discuss blood pressure and moving cities

A rough guide

 

She gave the nurse a selection of books about London. The young boy took them and thanked her. He shuffled them; Sightseeing Swinging London, essential buildings London, Galleries and museums of London. All great, he thought to himself, if it was 1978

            - they are a little old but all the buildings are still there, the prices may have changed somewhat, but I found them very useful whilst I lived in the east end myself.

            - No, no, thanks, Audrey, thank you, it’s really nice of you, I really appreciate it, I can’t wait to go and visit these places.

            He tapped the top of the pile and then placed the books in to the plastic bag that the lady had given them to him in

            - Ok, I’m just going to put them safe by the nurses’ station, and then I’ll come back and we’ll go into the room to do the lying down, standing up blood pressure.

            - Oh you do know how I hate that thing. It makes me terribly nervous, not that I am a nervous person, it’s just I have had terrible problems with my blood pressure and after last time you done it with me, well it was so high, not like normal, usually I suffer from low blood pressure, but what was it, hang on let me check.

            Audrey opened her handbag and rummaged through until she fished out a small book which she opened, and fanned the pages until she stopped at the previous week’s entry.

            - Ah there we have it one hundred and seventy of eighty standing and…

            She looked up over her glasses and saw that the young nurse was at the other end of the room unplugging the blood pressure machine.

            - charming

            She said to the lady in the red dress sat next to her in a wheelchair. The lady was deaf in both years and her aids had not been put in properly that morning by her carers. She was also sitting in her own faeces and urine, but she didn’t know as she no longer had any feeling below her waist.

            The young nurse approached Audrey, pulling the machine

            - come on the Audrey lets go.

            - oh, if we must. right help me up… one, two, three. there we go. come on then young man, take my arm, and don’t try any funny business when we are alone in that room.

            - be careful with him Aud.

Another lady on the next table shouted over.

            - he took me in that room earlier. You’re a lucky girl.

            Audrey glanced back at the lady, winked and kicked her leg backwards and up into the air.

            - cold today Audrey?

            - well it’s not too bad, it’s this place though, the windows are always open, so I have to keep my jacket on.

            - yes there’s a bit of a breeze through here.

            - but I suppose you don’t get time to get cold, what with you being run off your feet here. Don’t they have any more staff, you always seem to be understaffed.

            - I know, and I am bank aswell.

            The couple turned a corner and headed through the open door into the old bathroom.

            - what do you want me to do, lie down first?

            - yep, and take your jacket off so I can put this around your arm.

            Audrey pulled off her left arm of her jacket, and rolled up her jumper and blouse, her skin turned red with the pressure of her clothes. She rubbed at her arm, then looked at her hands, and moved her wedding and engagement ring around her finger.

            - your life just goes in a flash, disappears in a blink, before you know it, and old age doesn’t come alone. Look at my hands. Look at them, terrible they used to be so beautiful, now they are just…

            - okay if you lie down for me then.

            - yes yes, be careful now. Do it better than last week, I am sure there is something wrong with that machine, you put it around to tight. OOOOOOWWWWAAAAAAAAH. Jesus mother and Mary, and I am not religious. hoo, hoo, it’s tight. I hate this.

            The nurse clicked his pen so the nib appeared and then clicked it so it disappeared, he repeated this action until the reading was confirmed on the machine.

            - one hundred and sixty, over seventy two.

            - ah that’s better, better than last week.

            - right stand up for me.

            - oh hold on now. give a second, I get these dizzy spells when I stand up.

            - how long has that been going on for.

            - oh quite some time now, I just need a couple of seconds to stabilise and then we can crack on.

            - did you feel dizzy before you fell?

            - yes I did, I suppose I did.

            - that’s what happens when your blood pressure drops see. You faint so that the blood doesn’t have as far to travel to get to your brain. Clever really.

            - well God is a wonderful designer. Is that it are you done.

            - yep, you didn’t even feel that one, did you.

            - no, you were much more gentle. what’s the reading, am I still alive?

            - just about, but it is till lower than lying down. Postural hypertension. That’s what I was told on another ward. That’s what it’s called when your blood pressure drops when you stand up.

            - well I don’t understand, I see the doctor every week, and he reviews my medication. I don’t know what to do.

            The couple head back towards the table.

            - That was quick Audrey!!!

            - No messing around with this one ladies!!!

            The young nurse pulled her chair out from under the table.

            - thank you young man. you’ll make your girlfriend a good husband.

            The nurse pushed her and the chair back towards the table, and then inhaled in the faeces and urine from the lady in the red dress, in the wheelchair sat next to Audrey.

            - Margaret. Margaret. MARGARET.

            - yes luv.

            - I think that your pad needs chainging.

            - Wot luv

            - I think that your pad needs changing.

            - sorry luv you’ll have to speak up.

            The young nurse leaned closer into her.

            - I THINK THAT YOUR PAD NEEDS CHANGING.

            - Oh right luv.

            The nurse looked up at the clock 10:15. His stomach was rumbling, he only had one piece of toast before he cycled into work, and he knew that this ward didn’t let nurses eat any of the left over food that the patients are offered. He put his hands into his pockets and pulled out two ten pen pieces, a pen, his house key and a plectrum. He passed them from one hand into the other, sighed and put the contents from his left pocket into his right pocket.

            - Have you got a job lined up when you go to London?

            - No not yet Audrey, but I have an interview.

            - With which hospital?

            - No hospital, it’s with a record company.

            - Oh right. I assumed that you were going there to work in a bigger hospital.

            - No Audrey, I’ve had enough of this job, there’s only so much you can take.

            The nurse kicked the breaks off, moved the wheelchair backwards, and spun the lady in the red dress around facing the toilets.

            - COME ON THEN MARGARET, LETS CLEAN YOU UP.

            - Yes luv, let’s clean me up.

            The young nurse gripped the handles of the wheelchair. His knuckles turned white. His stomach rumbled again, but he will go off the idea of food, when he pulls down the lady’s red dress to discover her faeces are clostridium difficile, and the pad hadn’t prevented leakage down her thighs and into her stockings.