My personal experience of Moorfields has never been anything other than spot on really! The hospital itself is very easy to get to from where I live, literally a train ride in to Finsbury Park, 5 stops down on the tube and follow the green line (assuming you can see it) from Old Street all the way to the hospital. I had taken my Mum with me, throughout all I have been through she has been the one who has sat beside me, held my hand, made me laugh and kept me going.
It is a very clean and friendly place. I had phoned them and had to describe my symptoms to a duty nurse, who told me to make my way in immediately. I don't really know what I expected, but I found the wait is probably the same as in any other A&E around the country, but here they move you about, so, you check in, sit and wait 15mins or so, then you see the duty nurse, who actually writes stuff down and listens to what you are saying, I know this because he asked me questions relevant to the information I was giving him, its drives me mad when they ask you stupid questions!
I think the staff must be trained to remain calm at all times, as this definitely has a calming influence on the public, the duty nurse talked me through their procedure, and was very reassuring, then off he toddled with my paperwork and I return to the waiting area. This time my bum cheeks hardly meet the chair (which indecently are comfortable, that's chairs not my bum), and we are moved to the next waiting area, I am whizzed off for a sight test and am given my own nurse! Tina, who will be looking after you today. Tina is a large African lady who is the most nicest, loving and happy lady I have ever met in a hospital, she chatted freely to me while she took my blood pressure and did a eye test. Everyone who does my eye tests says exactly the same thing, Ohhhhhh you are very young to have such bad eye sight, I am never quite sure what to reply and half the time just say, Sorry! I have no idea why I say sorry! Tina made sympathetic noises and then backed out of the room to find a doctor...when she returned, I can tell you I had a massive lump in my stomach, I felt sick and I was sweating in parts of my body I didn't realise you could sweat from, Tina returns and says we are going to dilate your eyes and start doing some tests, and then tells me to return to the waiting area, only I cant see, I didn't know what to do, I stood there in this little room thinking, what am I going to do, how am I going to get to the waiting area, I wanted to cry, I could hear Tina singing away to herself and getting on with her jobs, and it felt like I had stood there for ever, then she said, are you alright Darling? you can go back to the waiting area now...in a very small voice I told her I couldn't see where to go, I felt horrible, emotions I have never experienced before all swamped over me in those few seconds, humiliation, uselessness, I felt ashamed that I needed help, she instantly made the situation light, took my arm and sang me all the way back to where my Mum was sitting. My Mum is hilarious, as we sat there waiting for dilation to work, she starts people watching, ohhhh, look at that ladies top, that's lovely! well, he obviously didn't look in the mirror before he came out this morning!....MUM I cant see them! OHHHH YEAHHH, WELL.....and proceeds to explain what everyone is doing and wearing, that is how quickly the people closest to me adjusted to my sight loss, Mum and I had some fantastic laughs in those waiting areas, and every time I was called in for a test or to see the doctor I knew she would be sitting there when I come out ready to make me laugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment