In Need of Resuscitation

My Little Darling has been unwell with a heavy cold and the beginnings of a nasty cough. She was a bit pathetic last night and would have been ideal casting for a costume drama about a young girl dying of some incurable disease.

I was rudely awakened at some ungodly hour by MLD shaking me and saying, “you’ll have to take me to hospital”. Luckily I forgot that the Tax Disc for the car hadn’t arrived yet so I didn’t add a guilty look to my “I’m really still asleep” style of driving. I also dumped the car in the blue zone at the hospital car park, which I have later discovered is reserved for consultants, so I could easily have been carted off to prison for a whole cornucopia of car-related offences. We picked the optimum time to arrive at A&E. The drunks and weirdos had all been attended to and we whizzed straight into triage, our feet hardly touched the ground before we were whisked into Major Injuries and straight out again into “Resusc”. It sounds scary, doesn’t ? MLD was hooked up to a very colourful monitor which emitted a loud high-pitched beep all the time we were there because it didn’t like the combination of her levels. The fluourescent lights added to the nightmare scenario and by the time MLD was discharged, when the world had all gone to work for the day, I was on the verge of having to be admitted for damage to my eyes and ears.

As well as being hooked up to the shrieking monitor, MLD had tubes coming out of various limbs and a face mask through which she was continuously nebulised for several hours. We even witnessed the Resusc unit being “cleaned”. If I had applied for this job I think I would have been turned down for being over enthusiatic! For one who is close to being allergic to housework, I came perilously close to grabbing the cleaning materials and shrieking “give that to me, I’ll do it”.

Just in case you are wondering about the invalid, she improved greatly and we were packed off home after a visit to the hospital pharmacy. We snuggled up on the sofa together for a late breakfast of poached eggs on wholemeal and cranberry toast and butternut squash and chickpea soup and then I hopped on the train to do half a days work.

In need of resuscitation? I certainly am and so I am retiring to my boudoir for a very early night.