Grateful to the nurse

Here’s the second Substack post i’m reposting here today

Here’s the transcript for something I recorded this morning, and lower down is a poem that is separate but related.

I’m on my way back from the GP where the practice nurse gave me an injection, and I’m on a different route, and the wind is blowing. So I don’t know how this will turn out, but we’ll see.

I just wanted to say that the nurse was really particularly lovely today. She had gone out of her way to ask the GP for some extra blood tests. I had a load the other day, but they’re quite restricted, the basic blood tests, and she took the initiative to write to the GP to say, I think Mr Quill needs to have some extra bloods taken so we can test this this and that.

It was a really lovely for her to show that level of kindness and support. It’s the sort of thing that can easily be forgotten, really, The NHS is big and busy and demanding in so many ways. And it was lovely that here’s one individual member of staff really looking out for a patient.

I’ve just turned 75, as you know, and I thought I’d say to her, can I have some sort of General Health checkup, please. But apparently, I don’t qualify. I’m not old enough, nor am I young enough, apparently! So, I can’t just have a checkup, even though that seems to me a sensible way of using resources. Get the old boy in, talk about a few things, and see what comes next. As it is I’ve got to do the usual triage, get a GP appointment, talk about one thing, maybe run out of time, maybe see him again another time. (He is a man I go see by the way.)

I could dwell on that as a negative, and I am a bit fed up with it to be honest. It would be good to be able to have a good old holistic checkup, the whole of me, not just a particular bit. So I am fed up with it, but it is what it is, and I’m able to deal with that now. And, instead of dwelling on that, the negative, I’m sending this message today to say “well done” to the nurse who went out of her way to give me an extra bit of support and service, and it’s so nice.

Whenever that happens to you, even if very negative stuff is going on, maybe, just maybe see whether you can see what the positive is, if you can. And then, maybe there’s some scope for a bit of gratitude as well. I’m not saying I always remember, but today I did, and I thought I’d pass it on.

Okay, go well.

***

This is a poem I posted on Sez Kristiansen yesterday. It’s related to what I recorded in that you’ll see I sit with the pain of the world and I managed to find solace if not gratitude…

I sit with the pain of the world

The child abused for the pleasure of others

The mother who sees her child blown apart by a missile strike

The man helpless to keep his family safe

The families, the communities, the cultures forced to leave home

The families, the communities, the cultures unwelcome where they arrive seeking solace

I could go on, and on, and on....

I sit with my inability to see much hope for the human species

I sit with the possibility, nay the probability, that our time is nearly up

I find solace in places like this

With others willing to express vulnerability and pain

I choose to believe that such expressions

Will prepare me and us for whatever might come after this life

Better than any attempt to be tough and strong