Chest pain, dizziness , out of breath.
Arm pain, nausea, gasp for breath.
An ambulance whisks me from untimely death
and drops me at the nearest a&e.
It\'s 2am and all’s well
Though sticky pads, slapped here and there,
pinch the skin and pull the hair
from a chest waxed bare
by the pads of previous ecgs.
I lie still, relax, and breath.
It\'s 4am and all’s well.
I am, as yet, not cathetered
Though machines around me flash and beep
and noisily disturb my sleep,
And leave me groggy and drifting deep
in the wash of broken dreams,
they reassure me i still live.
It\'s 6am and all’s still well
Some other patients seem much worse.
as they twist and turn and groan and curse
and, fighting, wrestle with the nurse
as she tries to do her stuff
to ease their pain
It\'s 8am and I am well.
I remain, so far, uncathetered
and my file’s still free from the fateful phrase
‘Nil by mouth’
Hospital. Feb 2017