…into a grin as I walk into the room.
\nYou have an infectious smile.
\nI have been so afraid to see you today,
\nthat I have left you for last.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s you!
\nYou\u2019re always optimistic and bringing good news\u201d, you say.
\nI had planned to make it quick
\nand leave the dressing of your wounds
\nto the nurse.
\nBut I have left you for last,
\nand now I have time.<\/p>\n
I clean the pins of your external fixator
\nwith great care.
\nNo one will dress your wounds
\nmore lovingly
\nthan I am doing today.
\nYou are one of my favourite patients
\nand I
\nneed you to know it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Day before yesterday,
\nyou cried.
\nMy heart broke
\nfor you.
\nYour situation
\nis understandable. Young,
\nhealthy, with a broken
\nleg. Impatient.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tomorrow,
\njust as we are about to leave
\nyour bedside,
\nmy boss will ask you
\nabout the bandage on your left arm.
\nI will look away and freeze
\nin painful anticipation.
\n\u201cOh, that\u2019s nothing\u201d,
\nyou will say.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yesterday,
\nmy colleague said he had asked you
\nto cover up the tattoo on your left arm.
\n\u201cHave you seen it?\u201d
\nNo, I hadn\u2019t.
\n\u201cI think he\u2019s just a silly person\u201d,
\nanother colleague had offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople like him burn down buildings
\nfull of asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll let him off easy because you
\nthink he\u2019s silly?!
\nEither way, it\u2019s illegal<\/p>\n
to wear that tattoo
\nvisibly,<\/p>\n
so I\u2019ve asked him
\nto cover it up or
\nI\u2019ll report him to the police\u201d<\/p>\n
I had no idea how to react.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t worry,
\nit isn\u2019t your problem
\nto solve, it\u2019s mine\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
But my relief was short-lived when
\nI remembered
\nthat I would be doing ward rounds
\nalone the next day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have been so afraid
\nto see you
\ntoday, that
\nI have left you
\nfor last.<\/p>\n
And as I leave your room
\nafter dressing your wounds, I
\nrealise that<\/p>\n
I still
\ndon\u2019t know what your left arm
\nlooks like and<\/p>\n
I am not here only
\nfor the Hippocratic Oath<\/p>\n
You are still
\none of my favourite patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
…into a grin as I walk into the room. You have an infectious smile. I have been so afraid to see you today, that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,4,75],"tags":[153,188,154],"class_list":["post-1085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-medical","category-story","category-writing","tag-germany","tag-hospital","tag-neo-nazism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1085"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1263,"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions\/1263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yetunde-siemers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}