To Be Frank - Doreen from Tesco is a star
It’s a funny old life. We never quite know what’s waiting for us around the next corner, do we? You think you’ll just nip up the road to Hunny, and then ...
The next thing I knew, The Other Half was in a heap in Tesco’s car park, with an extremely painful sprained ankle. They say a sprain can actually hurt more than a fracture, and trust me, she isn’t arguing.
First off, Tesco’s staff were brilliant. And I’m not just saying that. Doreen and her colleague took half an hour out of their busy day to look after us, made up an ice pack for the swollen ankle, and gave lots of practical advice, while another member of staff rang the paramedics for us.
All told it was above and beyond the call of duty, and honestly, we can’t tell you how grateful we are. Thank you, Doreen and friends, you really are stars.
Of course, the paramedics said they were really busy, so could we get to A&E? Well, fair dos. They have to prioritise. So, extremely gingerly, off we went.
Now, Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital gets a bit of flack at times, but I must say in my experience this is totally unjustified.
A few years ago I was in for a week with blood clots, and everyone was magnificent. And this time The Other Half was dealt with by four different members of staff, and the level of care and attention she received from each one was excellent.
Bit of a wait, though, you can’t deny. We were there upwards of five hours. Yes, five. Now look, I realise it’s all about priorities, and volume of patients, and that’s fair enough. We’ve all seen enough hospital dramas on the telly to know what triage means.
All I’m saying is I just wish we could have been given some idea of the sort of wait we were in for.
I got a three-hour car park ticket, thinking that would be plenty. Yes, well. I subsequently moved the car to a 20-minute drop-off bay in front of A&E because I genuinely thought, having seen a nurse, a doctor, and had an X-ray, that we’d be leaving soon. Almost two hours later we finally did.
I’m not complaining, I’m just saying some sort of clue would have been nice.
By the way, if you want to park in the QEH early afternoon, forget it. The space I eventually found, among cars parked up grass verges and heaven only knows where, seemed half-way back to Hunny. Moving the car for the third time, early evening, was no problem.
What’s important, though, is that we now knew that nothing was broken, we had a pair of crutches, a prescription, and lots of advice – and The Other Half had been firmly told by a doctor that no, she couldn’t hobble back to work the day after tomorrow!
In fact, it’s cruelly ironic that The Other Half, who is studying to be a pharmacy dispenser, has just got to the part of her course about pain relief that involves the very drugs she was given. It’s not supposed to be a practical, love!
This is taking your studies just a little bit too far, don’t you think?
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for King's Lynn
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: North west
