“My notes here say that you had a crisis earlier this year”
“That’s right”
“What happened?” He doesn’t really sound interested. He sounds caring, as you have to be in his profession, but underneath that he sounds tired, over worked, under the weather.
“I took paracetamol”
“How many?”
“90” I say without missing a beat.
He blinks. “90?”
“Yes”
“Had you been drinking?”
“No”
Another blink. “You took 90 paracetamol whilst sober?”
“That’s right”
“You must have been feeling ghastly”
I liked that, the word ‘ghastly’. That wasn’t jargon, or text-book speak. That was the instinctive reaction of a human being to my situation, totally unprepared and uncensored.
10 minutes later I was out of there with a promise that not only would I be put on a waiting list, but he would do everything he can to ensure that I was seen as soon as possible.
