mind, you know that I’m here.’
Rachael nodded and turned to go, but Helen hadn’t quite finished. ‘I suppose a girls’ night in with a bottle of wine and a pile of slushy films is out of the question, then?’
‘With no secret agenda?’ Rachael questioned. ‘No waiting for me to open up and reveal all?’
Helen nodded. ‘Scout’s honour. I’ve missed you, Rachael, and our chats.’
There was twenty years’ difference in age between the two women. Helen, happily overweight, blissfully married and successfully juggling four boys with her career, was a world away from a rather brittle Rachael who, as well as being far too thin, was newly single and having enough trouble juggling just getting up in the morning.
‘I’ll bring the videos, you can supply the wine. You did manage to get a couple of decent bottles from the divorce settlement, I hope?’
Rachael grinned. ‘A couple Richard didn’t know about.’
‘I’ll look forward to it, then.’ Helen’s tone changed, adopting a slightly more businesslike attitude she peered at her work sheet. Friends they might be, but at work Helen was definitely the boss.
‘I’ve just given you beds one to four this afternoon. They’re all pretty straightforward—two surgical, two cosmetic, all a couple of days post-op except for Sheila Cosgrove, who’s awaiting her surgery, so hopefully you’ll have a gentle start back.’ As Rachael’s pager sprang into life, Helen started to laugh. ‘Famous last words. Hailey Watkins will run you ragged.’
However, it wasn’t Hailey buzzing but Sheila Cosgrove, eighty years old and awaiting the removal of a large abdominal tumour. The delay in her operation for once had nothing to do with waiting times and bed shortages. Instead, her condition was complicated by a long history of heart problems and other medical ailments which were all causing problems at the moment. Her operation, though necessary, was just too much of a risk while her medical condition was so unstable, and a lot of specialists were playing their parts in getting Sheila relatively well before she underwent surgery.
‘Good afternoon, Mrs Cosgrove. I’m Rachael Holroyd, I’ll be looking after you this afternoon. What seems to be the problem?’
‘I’ve got some pain.’
Pulling the curtains around to give Sheila some privacy from the other three patients in the bay, Rachael made her way over to the bed. ‘In your stomach?’ she asked, making to pull back the sheets.
‘No—here.’ Sheila’s hand reached up to her chest as Rachael checked her handover sheet.
‘You suffer with angina—is it the same type of pain?’ Sheila nodded as Rachael checked her drug chart. ‘I’ll go and get you some spray, Sheila, and then I’ll do a set of obs.’
As Rachael made her way swiftly across the small ward, the patient in bed three called her back. ‘Sister?’
‘Yes, Mrs Watkins?’
‘Hailey, please. It’s Rachael, isn’t it? I remember you from last year when it was the old ward—I was in, having my appendix out.’
‘That’s right,’ Rachael said, a smile breaking on her face as she remembered her patient from the previous year. ‘I thought your name sounded familiar.’
‘I said then I’d be back for a breast enlargement before my fortieth birthday, do you remember?’
Rachael didn’t, but she smiled warmly as Hailey chatted on in her slightly dizzy voice. ‘Dr Connell told me I need to drink more. Would you mind filling up my water jug?’
She couldn’t at the moment, Sheila’s chest pain had to take precedence, but Rachael gave an easy smile. ‘Sure, I’m just caught up right now, but I’ll be back in a moment and then I’ll come and make sure you’re comfortable.’
‘Thanks.’ Turning her attention back to her magazine, Hailey suddenly looked up. ‘By the way, what did you have?’
The simple sentence stopped Rachael in her tracks. Half turning to go, she literally froze for a moment, hesitating at Hailey’s question.
‘You were just about to go off on maternity leave when I was in here.’
‘That’s right.’ For something to do, Rachael busied herself pulling out the bedspread and tucking it again, a futile task, and totally needless, but it beat talking about her personal life.
‘So what did you have?’
‘A girl,’ Rachael said with a brisk smile, wheeling Hailey’s table into perfect alignment with her bed and shuffling a pile of magazines into shape. ‘Look, I have to go,’ she said apologetically. ‘I’ll be back to you soon.’
Sheila’s respirations were raised and her hands were shaking so much she wasn’t able to work the little pump spray. Though Rachael had no doubt at all that while Sheila did indeed have chest pain and was having an angina attack, anxiety was playing a large part in her symptoms, exacerbating her pain and generally making things worse. Helping her with the spray, Rachael spoke in gentle tones. Although she had only just met her patient, Rachael noted with satisfaction how her comforting words seemed to be working as gradually Sheila’s respiration rate and pulse settled to a more normal state.
‘I don’t like hospitals,’ Sheila said, sinking back on her pillows.
‘A lot of people don’t. Is the pain easing now?’
Sheila nodded. ‘A bit.’ Her anxious eyes met Rachael’s. ‘Can you stay for a little while?’
‘Of course. We’ll give it a couple more moments and if it hasn’t eased off some more we’ll give you another spray and see about calling the doctor.’ The chiming from her pager was unfamiliar and it took a couple of seconds to turn it off and read the message. Pulling back the curtains, Rachael saw that indeed there was a light above Hailey’s bed. ‘Is everything all right, Hailey?’
‘I asked for some water. I thought you might have forgotten.’
Mustering as much tact as she could, Rachael smiled. ‘I haven’t forgotten, I’m just with someone right now. I’ll get it just as soon as I can.’
‘And you won’t forget?’
How could I? Rachael was tempted to ask, but thought better of it. Her irritation was soon replaced by concern as she heard Sheila starting to retch. Reaching for a kidney dish, Rachael soothed the elderly lady, her concern growing as she felt the clammy skin beneath her touch. Pressing on the call bell three times, she connected the oxygen.
‘Sheila, I’m just going to pop on some nasal prongs to give you some oxygen.’
‘Everything all right?’ Helen’s face peered around the curtain.
‘Chest pain,’ Rachael said fiddling with the flow-meter. ‘Could you page her doctor for me? I’m just going to run off an ECG.’
‘Here …’ Helen handed her a portable phone. ‘We’re high-tech now! You stay with her and page the doctor and I’ll fetch the ECG machine.’
Thankfully
