the man made it plain he wasn’t going to be placated by Ty’s verbal diagnosis, he wanted a visit. The good thing was that Ty would be guaranteed payment for this home visit through the works remuneration scheme which covered this family. It was as he suspected, the woman had just been suffering testing pains, but by the time Ty had got back home, it hadn’t been worth returning to bed so he’d used the time to catch up with some paperwork.
Morning surgery had been busy and had overrun by three quarters of an hour. He’d been late starting his morning round in the area, which then resulted in his overrunning by forty minutes. He was left with just twenty minutes to make and eat his lunch before going out again on his afternoon round. So a sudden hammering on the surgery door had him exclaiming in exasperation: ‘Oh, for God’s sake! Do people around here not think their doctor deserves any time to eat his lunch?’
It was on his mind to ignore the summons, pretend he wasn’t at home, but the continual urgent thumping on the door had him slamming down his plate and cup of tea, slopping the contents over the table, and shouting out angrily, ‘Hold on, I’m just coming.’
He glared in annoyance when he saw the intruder. What was it with this woman that each time she called upon him she was in a state of hysteria, demanding his immediate attention on a matter of life or death? He supposed in fairness the first time she had called him it had in fact been a matter of death, and the second had been a matter of some urgency. Surely, though, the odds were against her having a third emergency so soon? Before he could enquire the reason for her visit, she cried out, ‘You’ve got to come quick, Doc, it’s me gran.’
Once again he informed Aidy, ‘It’s Doctor Strathmore. Now, can whatever it is your grandmother needs to see me about wait until I’ve at least eaten my lunch?’
‘No, it can’t! She’s had a fall. It’s her leg … The one she broke a few weeks ago … well, I think she’s damaged it again. She’s in that much pain, she can’t speak.’ Aidy grabbed his arm, gripping it tightly. ‘You’ve got to come now,’ she insisted.
He wasn’t amused by her manhandling of him or the tone of voice she’d used to get across her point. Wrenching himself free from her grip, he snapped, ‘I’ll get my bag then.’
It transpired that Bertha had re-broken her leg. Through her pain, she managed to tell Ty that she’d decided after five weeks of being driven to despair, lying on the sofa, that surely it would have healed by now … Well, Maisie Turnbull’s young son’s broken leg had only taken five weeks to heal. Her leg should have been fine by now … Only for her to discover it wasn’t.
Ty had been very brusque in his response. He hadn’t ordered complete bed rest for seven weeks for the fun of it, he pointed out. Old broken bones took longer to heal than younger ones. Now she would pay for not adhering to his explicit instructions by another seven weeks of complete rest and, as he’d instructed before, he would examine her to check the bone had healed before she risked putting even gentle pressure on it.
Although she hadn’t been alone as yet with her grandmother, Aidy knew that the explanation she had given the doctor for how she had come to rebreak her leg was a complete lie. The truth of the matter was that she had been trying to wake Aidy up. Obviously shouting at her hadn’t done the trick, so deeply had she been sleeping, and Bertha’s only other option was to shake her awake.
Having shown Ty out, with a promise to settle up his mounting bill as soon as she could, Aidy returned to the back room to study her grandmother’s condition. As if the last episode hadn’t taken toll enough on her, this one had left her seriously depleted. Before Pat’s attack on her, Bertha’s age might have slowed her down a bit, she might not have been able to carry heavy loads any longer, but she’d still been very agile for a woman in her late sixties. Now she looked so old and frail … Aidy just hoped this was only temporary and once she’d recovered, Bertha would return to her old self.