A DIFFERENT PLACE

A DIFFERENT PLACE


Just my luck as I arrived at the Fever Hospital Ginny was leaving.  I had just been home for my day off but called in at my own hospital to collect any post.  There      was a letter and chocolates from Jamie.  He would be with me soon and I hoped he would find his way to this unfamiliar locality.

After my first day I decided that ‘I hate it, hate it HATE IT.’  There was some ‘horrible language’ on the wards and the wards themselves seemed grimy in comparison to our own pristine wards.  I had two ambulance trips to pick up patients and had to remember which admission department to go to according to the disease.  I think the Fever Nurses were used to this reaction from the Children’s Nurses and they did their best to make us welcome and help us to cope with the very different circumstances.  We were treated with kid gloves.

Soon we settled in and things began to improve but one morning I was asked to bathe a new admission with erysipelas.  He was very dark and extremely hairy and as I started to remove the bedclothes he grasped my hand and leered at me.  I wrenched my hand away and fled to the sluice.  Staff Nurse was great and told me not to worry – they got all sorts on the ward and I wasn’t asked to bathe a man again.

One night on the women’s ward there was a sweet grey-haired old lady with long plaits twined round her head.  We weren’t busy so remembering how Gran used to love me to brush her hair I asked her if she would like me to brush hers.  She nodded, with a sweet smile and as I let down her hair I realised with horror that it was alive.
With shaking hands I excused myself and went to report to Sister.  I was horrified and angry that this could happen.  In my own hospital each morning the junior nurse would go round with the head tray and examine the children’s heads.  Any nits were dealt with and treated immediately so there was no chance of cross infection.

At that time there was a lot of polio, or infantile paralysis as it was also known.  It was a viral infection of the nervous system and patients were treated by being put in an iron lung.  FDR Roosevelt developed polio in the early 1920’s and spent the rest of his life in a wheel chair.  One night when I was on duty, we got this pretty young woman admitted with suspected polio.  She was very distressed as she had twin babies and didn’t want to be separated from them.  The doctor told her firmly that she was very ill indeed and naturally she became more distressed.  I stayed with her as long as possible trying my best to comfort her and was totally shocked next morning to discover she had died during the night.

  It was all part of one’s nursing experience and I concluded that I didn’t want to do Fever Training and wondered if I really wanted to do my General.  I felt very fortunate to be nursing children.

One of the younger doctors was very attentive and asked me for a game of tennis but I was waiting to hear from Jamie and didn’t want any complications so politely refused.
At last a letter came to say he was arriving that day.   I sent a telegram to Mum to ask her to get Jamie to ring which he did at eleven thirty pm.  We arranged that he would come here for my evening off so I washed my hair before going to bed.

Next day was a lovely day and I had an ambulance trip to Knutsford to pick up a patient.  Off duty at 5pm and there was my darling in the waiting room.  We went to a place, incredibly named Bogart Hole Clough.  I remember it as a steep valley with lots of trees.  We walked dreamily and ended up in Manchester at the Blue Angel for a meal.  Then Jamie took me back to Hospital and we parted.  But only for a day.