Fallen From Grace

10am

My phone goes yet again – for the third time already that morning. To be honest I was half expecting it. Of course I was what else could I expect when I have a 'temp' nanny looking after my daughter?

We are expecting a patient on Darwin today who has a very serious cardio vascular disease known as Moyer Moyer Disease. This means the main arteries to her heart have been blocked, so the body tries to make more arteries to compensate for the ones that have been blocked. But the problem with these temporary arteries made by the body is that they are both very weak and small, which means that less oxygen can get though to the heart and vice versa. Add to that the fact that this patient already has a major neurological defect which could cause her to die on the table. But she can't have one piece of surgery without the other as the risks are too high. We are having a case conference later to try and decide how best to proceed with this, and what would be most beneficial to the patient in the long run.

My phone rings again ''Oh what now? Don't 'temps' have any experience of looking after children?''. I answer the phone. As I thought it was Anna asking me how the web cam worked as it wasn't connected and there wasn't any image on the computer monitor.

''Are you sure you've got all the cables connected properly in all the right sockets?''- When she assured me she had I put the phone down. Now I was starting to get annoyed as it was apparent she may be not be experienced as I first thought. She has phoned me every 5 minutes or what feels like it to ask how this or that works, where this or that goes.

I decided to go down to Darwin to see if we could retrieve a patient's notes that we had misplaced earlier that week. I said 'Good Morning' to the staff and also welcomed back Chrissie Williams who is our Ward Sister returning from sick leave after being attacked by her boyfriend Stuart. Sam has just offered to look after Grace. I must admit I doubted his reliability, but I realize I shouldn't have been so quick to judge him; he would do anything for her. But I can't expect him to look after her, when he is recovering from cancer and is struggling to even look after himself?