A different navy blue-clad nurse from the previous day pushed past the drinks trolley and approached Peggy’s bed. “Good morning,” she said curtly.
Peggy ignored her tone and said, “Can you help me and my friend to sit up, so we can enjoy our morning cuppa?”
“Of course,” and the nurse helped Peggy sit up, rearranging her pillows behind her back.
Peggy smiled at Keya. Did Peggy really need so much help?
When the nurse approached Keya, she observed, “You’ve managed to move yourself a bit. What movement do you have in your arms?”
“None in my left still, but my right is working better.”
“Good. The doctor will visit after breakfast.”
Keya was grateful for her tea, even though she felt like a small child as the orderly held the grey plastic cup up to her lips so she could sip from it.
“Better than home, this is,” said Peggy cheerfully. “And we get to enjoy breakfast in bed, too.”
Breakfast was a choice of cornflakes, Weetabix, or bran flakes. Keya chose bran flakes, which were served in a grey plastic bowl, a strawberry yogurt, and a slice of brown toast with orange marmalade.
It wasn’t gourmet, but it was simple, and Keya found she was hungry, since she hadn’t eaten the night before.
A young orderly in a light-blue uniform arrived at Keya’s bedside and said, “I’ve come to help. Would you like me to feed you?”
No, Keya thought instinctively. But what if she couldn’t feed herself? She looked down at the table, which had been swung across her bed. Its supporting stand and wheels were to her right.
“Can you raise the table?” she asked.
“Of course.”
But even with the table raised, Keya couldn’t spoon cereal on her own and raise it to her mouth. In the end, she allowed her cheerful helper to collect a spoonful of bran flakes and lift it to her lips, where she was able to spoon it into her own mouth.
It was laborious and Keya felt self-conscious, but whenever she looked across at Peggy, her neighbour smiled and nodded her encouragement.
The assistant also helped her eat her yogurt, but at least she could grip her toast herself and lift it to her mouth. Eating was not going to be fun until her right arm was working properly, and by the end of the meal, she felt exhausted.
“Thank you,” she said to her cheerful helper, who wheeled the table out of the way.
“No problem. And I’m on duty all day, so if you need any help with headphones or the like, just call?”
“How?” Keya asked.
The orderly reached under her bed and scooped up a cable like the one next to Peggy’s bed. Attached to it there was a flat red button. “With this. Do you want to practise pressing it?”
Feeling rather ridiculous at having to practise anything so simple, but realising the orderly wouldn’t leave until she did, Keya pressed the button.
“Excellent,” the orderly praised her as if Keya had reached an important goal. Perhaps she had.
The nurse appeared at the entrance to the ward and the orderly left Keya, and said as she approached the nurse, “I was just checking Keya could use the call button. What would you like me to do now?”
The two blue-clad figures left the ward.
A few minutes later, the senior nurse reappeared with the doctor who’d seen Keya the previous day. They approached the first bed and drew the curtain around it.
“Derek should be here after the doctor’s rounds,” Peggy said. “What about you? Is that attentive young man coming back to see you?”
“I don’t know,” Keya admitted. It was a Saturday, so she wasn’t sure who’d come to see her. People had plans. Millie and Ryan were running the Cotswold Way. Millie. The Cafe. She was supposed to be covering.
She should call someone, but she couldn’t. She didn’t have her phone.
“Are you OK?” asked Peggy.
“I’m supposed to be at the cafe this morning and I can’t call anyone to sort it out.”
“Don’t worry about that. They’ll know you're in hospital, and I’m sure they can manage without you.”
Keya sank back into her pillows. In truth, they could manage without her.
“Why the glum look?” asked the doctor as he approached Keya’s bed.
The nurse pulled the blue curtain screen around them.
“I was just thinking that while I’m stuck in here, work will carry on without me.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Give you time to rest and recuperate. And how are you feeling this morning?”
“Better, thank you,” Keya replied politely.
The doctor went through his checks and then asked her to raise her limbs. Her right arm was improving each time, but her left one remained limply by her side.
