Making a crisis or several out of a drama

Are you sitting comfortably, this may take some time. Comfort food, or favourite tipple, or even both at the ready, then I’ll begin. Recovered from treatment overseas, husband is feeling rested and well. Wife dares to suggest a weekend break at a country house hotel an easy drive from home. Husband agrees, the booking is made and off they go. All goes well, and they return home relaxed and happy, replete with good food and wine. So where to journey next? Half term is approaching and arrangements are made to spend some time with grandchildren who live two hundred miles away. Our happy couple spend the next week pottering round the house and anticipating their next trip. Then, disaster strikes. Husband, rarely for him, complains of a bad headache. Wife offers painkillers, tea and sympathy, but to no avail. Two days later, there is no improvement, if anything the headache is worse. This being Friday, and mindful of the problems in getting medical assistance at weekends, wife suggests a call to the surgery. Husband decides it is not that bad and takes more painkillers. The headache gets worse still. By Friday evening husband is forced into a darkened room. The following morning there is no change, and so wife proposes a call to NHS Direct. Husband flatly refuses having had several bad experiences with the service in the past. By evening, husband still has a blinding headache, and has developed a livid red rash on one side of his forehead, and one eyelid is swollen shut. Still he refuses NHS Direct. He tells wife the headache seems to be subsiding, but she is not convinced. Wife is now very worried. She is sure she has read somewhere of a Meso rash suffered by Mesothelioma patients. She knows the cancer can spread into the abdomen, but doesn’t think it can metastasise to the brain As the surgery opens on Monday morning, husband calls for an appointment. You will be ahead of me here. Only emergency appointments are available. The duty doctor will call back to asses whether husband can be seen today. The doctor calls husband explains symptoms, and yes, he can be seen. Husband insists he can drive himself to the surgery so wife waits anxiously for the outcome. Husband is away a very long time. His mobile is switched off, so wife can only wait for news. Eventually the wanderer returns, he has come via the pharmacy and supermarket, and is bearing various pills and potions to treat his condition, and as a treat for wife, cream donuts. The diagnosis, he has shingles. Three days later, husband is much improved, and the rash is subsiding The story continues………….Well, I did suggest refreshment might be in order. Did you think he was recovering? Oh, no. This man never does anything by halves. On Thursday evening, he complains of blurred vision in the eye on the side of his face affected by the rash. Wife is immediately back to panic mode, fear a detached retina or worse. She insists that husband contacts GP tomorrow to get advice before the weekend. So, husband goes back to GP. GP inspects the eye, says he can see nothing obviously wrong, but because shingles can affect nerve endings in the, eye he will refer husband to an eye clinic. By now, it is Friday afternoon and the clinic is closed. An appointment is made for Monday morning at one of the few local hospitals where husband has not so far been treated. GP instructs that if condition worsens over the weekend, husband should report to the casualty eye clinic. Thinking he will get ahead of the game, husband phones the hospital to ask if the clinic operates on Saturdays. The answer is no, but a consultant will available on Sunday morning. Fast forward to early Sunday morning. Husband and wife arrive at the hospital, and are pleasantly surprised to find a large car park area near the entrance set aside for blue badge holders. After walking down gleaming corridors, they arrive at the clinic. A pleasant nurse books them in and takes some preliminary vision tests. Soon the consultant arrives, smiles at the assembled patients, and wishes them “good morning”. A while later, husband is summoned to the consulting room. Wife waits anxiously. Soon husband reappears. The consultant has confirmed what the GP suspected. The shingles has caused inflammation of nerve endings in the eye. The good news is that it is treatable. A selection of drops has been prescribed, and a follow up appointment made for later in the week. As they head back to the car, wife wonders whether this hospital is the exception to the rule, or, if off-hand undignified treatment in grubby surroundings experienced by husband in other out patient clinics is reserved especially for cancer sufferers.