My Time In A & E

Dear diary...

I never thought that I would be back in A & E. almost ten years from the last time I was there. It began on Tuesday February 24^th 2026. I've been feeling unwell for quite sometime with my chest and had a feeling it wasn't good, but couldn't bring myself to admit there was anything bad happening.

I had to admit feeling a little dizzy on this day while treading the pavements on my daily walks, but just thought I needed something to eat, actually I was starving. When I got home I quickly made myself an egg sandwich and a cup of tea, but as soon as I'd finished there were terrible stabbing pains again and tightness in my chest.

It felt like heartburn. I took some deep breaths and the pain seemed to settle down, I even managed to clean the kitchen windows, a chore I'd been meaning to do for ages. But that night sleep was erratic and the pain was getting worse.

On the morning of Wednesday 25^th February 2026, I was now getting concerned with the pain. I rang the pharmacist at Boots, he seemed very concerned when I gave my symptoms and said I should contact my doctor straight away, but for now I could take an asprin to relieve the pain. Feeling a little better, stupidly I held off phoning the doctor and went to bed and slept all afternoon.

By Thursday 26^th February 2026 the pain had returned and now felt like I was having a heart attack, so I rang the doctors. They told me I should go immediately to A & E. My partner drove me. I arrived at the reception at midday and signed in.

I found a chair and waited and waited. A doctor finally came at about 2.30pm and I explained my symptoms. After some more time waiting, they did an x ray of my chest. Returning to the waiting area I lingered a long time for the results which finally came.

The doctor returned looking concerned. He sat me down and explained that it didn't look good. He was very bleak and mentioned words like T B and Cancer which had me shuddering at the very thought.

He then said, “look please don't get anxious yet, the x ray doesn't always show up everything.”

I thought I was going to cry, but thankfully managed to hold back the tears, especially as I was surrounded by loads of people.

“We want to keep you in for more tests, so as to be sure of what we're dealing with...” he hesitated. “ I just want to be honest with you, that's if you want me to.”

Well of course I wanted him to be honest, even if it was bad news. I hated being kept in the dark. But how could I not be worried? This was my life he was talking about and it did scare me, but I tried not to think about it.

Sitting in A & E was mind numbing to say the least. I had my blood pressure taken every two hours which was the highlight of the day, also many blood tests.

Then a nurse came along and took me to a room where she inserted a needle with tubes in my veins, so they could examine me further. Then she explained about what the fluid would be for.

By now I'd gone back to the waiting area and sat for another 2 hours. It was getting on for nearly 5pm when a porter came and wheeled me down a maze of corridors, leaving me with no idea of where I was. “How on earth do you navigate your way around?” I asked him.

“I've been here 5 years,” he said, “so these corridors have become second nature, but many of the staff, especially newer ones get lost, even now.”

Finally we reached another area and I waited to be taken into a room where they filled my tubes with a fluid which I can't recall the name of, but I was to lie on a bed and go through a scanning machine and the fluid would travel through and show up a better view of my chest. Scan took about 3 minutes and reminded me of when I had my hip scanned, but without the awful noise.

I was wheeled back to A & E and had to wait yet again for the results, which was an endless misery of watching people crying in pain. One man came in with a broken arm. I've never seen a man cry like he did, it was horrible and I felt so sorry for him, it convinced me I'd never have made a nurse in my younger days.

Another boy came in with a black eye and a broken nose which to me looked horrific. Then a woman was crying her eyes out on her phone with a sick bowl beside her looking like death. These people were a sad reflection of pain I couldn't imagine.

By now I'd lost all track of time, it just felt like I was in the twilight zone of hell with all the wretchedness of being surrounded by so much pain and not knowing what was wrong with me, only that it was serious and could be life threatening.

I'd thought when I came in they'd just do one test and be able to tell me what was wrong and I'd go home. Now they wanted me to stay in overnight...well that was completely unexpected and I didn't know what was coming next.

To be continued...