Hospital Stories

The ward at night - little light,

Dark to the world, dark to the self.

my body stirs, something's not right.

I look around, no nurse in sight.

 

My bladder full, I'm now in pain.

Is it my imagination or an infection?

I'm pulling my hair out, going insane.

No, it's this bloody catheter, it does not drain.

 

OK, I say, I'll act my age

And teeter down to the nurses' station

To explain my case: my blockage

and try my bladder to salvage.

 

"I'll take you in for a quick look"

So into the treatment room we go.

She does things methodically by the book.

I think: just free the flow, by hook or by crook.

 

The nurse she does a bladder scan

As I lay grimacing on my back.

Yes, it looks like there is a dam,

So she'll give me a flush, that's the plan.

 

Soon I'm flowing - what a relief.

To empty my bladder - ecstasy!

Now I feel drained, like an old tea leaf

And thank the nurse with heart felt belief.

 

The ward is dark, but not just night,

dark sounds too: moans, groans and retching,

Men alone with their urinary plight,

Waiting for morning and hope and light.

 

Goerge

 

George wouldn't stay in bed,

He couldn't lay down his weary head.

He found it very painful to pee

And his dribble resulted in agony,

So he would walk around

Like a mouse, barely a sound.

But at night, with no light,

Wasn' t seen as safe, not right.

So the nurses told him to stop,

To stay put, lie down: plop.

But lying down would make him scream,

So they administered liquid morphine.

Losing his way, losing his fight,

George had such a miserable night.

As the nurses came and fetched

I listened whilst he retched and retched.

 

In the morning he was taken down to surgery,

Please God, help this man I plea.

Did he listen? I don't know

By mid-morning I could go.

 

Life is sometimes very hard

When life deals us an unlucky card,

But why all this wretched pain?

It's enough to drive a soul insane.

Done