Where is your wife

The other day I had an appointment at a local hospital, some thing which had been arranged for months, but it was within walking distance, so as far as I was concerned I was happy as it was a place I knew very well and was comfortable there.

However the day of the appointment my wife had a problem with one of her eyes, and after contacting the doctors she was told to go straight to the local eye hospital to get it checked out, because there was a worry that it could be a detached retina or something like that. 

So it was decided, that as it was too late to cancel the appointment, I would just go and take a tape recorder with me so, that my wife knew what happened 

The place was very noisy with loud music and loud voices, so in the end I turned the recorder off for a while.

However when I walked in to the room, I was confronted with a doctor asking where my wife was and why she was not there, as my notes said that I have memory problems?

Then he asked for the list of medication I was taking, but I remembered that my wife had taken it in the last time, and apart from one inhaler which I had in my pocket, nothing had changed. 

But he still insisted that a list should be taken to each appointment, for their use.

He then repeated that my wife should have been with me. 

At this s point I realised that nothing I said would have any effect, so I did not bite.

His pager went off and he spent time talking to some one else, which I thought was rude, but as he is a doctor I thought it might be urgent and let it go.

It was a total waste of time being there, but I did not want to attempt to cancel an appointment at the last minute, besides which my wife's eyes are very important especially as she is responsible for me.

While I admit that it is very important to have someone with us like our carer, when we have memory problems, in this case, there was no one else who could go with me and as I said, my wife's eyes are very important.

 What is more, there are far too many people not turning up for appointments, so I had no option, because getting through the hospital switchboard could have taken longer.

The NHS never stops amazing me, one minute they totally ignore carers, the the next moment they cannot do anything without them being present