Page 10 of A Midlife Marriage

‘This is an emergency!’ he shouted.

It was almost as if she’d spoken out loud. She raised an eyebrow.Avoid intense eye contact which could be seen asprovocative.Straightening up she pulled her shoulders back.Put a little more physical distance between yourself and the patient.‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but an insurance form is not an emergency.’Speak softly and abstain from being judgemental.She’d been doing the job so long, it was almost impossible not to stay calm, not to put her training into place.

He took the sunglasses off and flung them on the counter. Helen watched as they flipped over. What next? Would he snap them in half?

‘I’m leaving tomorrow,’ he snarled.

‘And if you leave it with us, the doctor will sign it this afternoon. You can pick it up first thing.’Show your intention to rectify the situation rather than reprimanding the patient for their behaviour …For being an arsehole, more like …

‘And what time is that?’

‘We open at eight. Thank you,’ she called to his back, as he slapped the form on the desk, picked up his glassesand stalked off.

‘Next.’

A young girl sidled up to the counter, her friend lingeringbehind.‘I’ve come for the morning-after pill,’ she said, a little too boldly for Helen’s liking.

Show your intention to rectify the situation rather than reprimanding the patient for their behaviour …‘When was the last time you had unprotected sex?’And as Helen looked up, her face softened. Closer now she could see, the girl was close to still being a child. Sixteen, maybe. Seventeen, at most. A baby was the last thing she needed.She turned to her computer. The window for effective use of the morning-after pill was only seventy-two hours; she needed to get this girl in front of a doctor as soon as possible. The way someone should have got her own daughter in front of a doctor.At least this girl was being proactive, trying to help herself.Away from home, in her last year at university, and the father, an American exchange student, long since back across the Atlantic, Libby hadstuck her head in the sand for nearly seven months. The result of which ostrich-like action had been Ben. Who nobody could regret … Even so …

‘I haven’t,’ the girl said.

Helen blinked. ‘You haven’t what?’

‘Had unprotected sex.’

‘Then why are you here?’

The girl shrugged. ‘I’m going out tonight.’

‘Try the pharmacy,’ she snapped, and using her pen as an arrow held it up. ‘Out the door on the right.Next.’

A middle-aged man shuffled up.‘I’m telling you it’s a migraine. I need to see someone now.’

‘Are you dizzy’?’

‘No.’

‘And you can look at the lights?’

‘Those lights?’ He tipped his chin and looked directly at the glare of the fluorescent ceiling lights.

‘Please go and wait in the waiting room, sir,’ she said tightly. ‘The doctor will see you at your appointed time. It’s not a migraine.’Sir? He’d hadn’t even bothered to change from the joggers and stained t-shirt, it looked like he had slept in. ‘Next.’

‘But it feels like I’m on fire, love.’ Grey skin, orange-rimmed teeth and the rancid breath of aheavy smoker.

‘And, as we just agreed,it sounds like a urinary tract infection. The pharmacist willbe able to prescribe something directly.’

‘I don’t want a bloody chemist. I want a doctor!’

‘You can ring tomorrow,’ she said keeping her mouth just about shut. The woman’s breath was foul. ‘Or as I said, try the pharmacy.’

‘If I die it will be your fault!’

‘Next.’

‘I want them out now.’

’You were told yesterday,the doctor won’t remove hospital stitches. You can wait all afternoon to hear that for yourself, or you can listen to me and go back to … Ouch.’ She ducked as a pen flew past her ear.

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