RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29906, 21 August 1962, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

DON’T CARRY ON, NURSE

The outbreak of influenza in Christchurch last month made tremendous demands on doctors, and there has been sincere sympathy for them in the hours they have been called on to work. But they have not been the only ones run off their feet. Mothers have seldom had it so bad. We know of one woman who had all four of her sons stricken and in bed at the same time. The ages of the patients varied quite widely, and so, therefore, did the treatment. Never, in her youth, particularly at home in the use of figures, she found difficulty in remembering that A had two teaspoons of the red medicine at three-hourly in-

tervals, and one of the brown pills every six hours whereas B had one teaspoon of the yellow medicine every four hours, one red pill every two hours, two green ones every six hours. C shared the red medicine with A, but took it only at fourhourly intervals, with one pink pill with meals, which distinguished him from D, who had brown medicine and no pills. Of course, their palates had to be studied, and their varying demands put pressure on the kitchen staff, of herself. And to while away the dreary hours, they had varying forms of amusement. She had to run upstairs to A’s room to change a record on the radiogram, whip in to B to get another book from

the shelf, find for C the piece of crayon which had fallen beneath the bed. and mop up the painting water just spilled by D. All this kept her busy. But her task was complicated further by the fact that the youngest ones, C and D, had an aversion to taking medicine. She found the best way of handling them was to pin a pillow-case on her head in such a fashion that she looked like a nurse, persuading her husband to play the part of the visiting doctor, and make it look official. It worked admirably. But when, after a full week-end of this, the nurse began to flirt with the doctor, he thought it was time to take her temperature.