A Tale of two Ronnies and a night in Geppetto's workshop.

Thursday evening, and the madness continues well into the night.
I find myself alone again in the large open five bed annex that has become my home for the next few days.
From the room next to me I can hear the cries and wailing from the unstable women housed within.

Having watched a movie on my DVR, (as there is no TV) I decided to try and get some sleep.
I received some more panadol from the nurse and worked out that I needed to wake at around 2am to take some more before the fever started to build. As I got myself as comfortable as one can in a hospital bed and prepared to sleep, another patient arrived. We shall call him patient A. A man in his 70's who looks to be in fairly good health and going by his conversation with the nurses, of sound mind too. (Something that you just can't take for granted in hospital).

He settled in and once again I endeavoured to go to sleep. Then at around 11pm another patient arrived and started to rather noisily unpack his belongings. This seemed to take an inordinately long time and I started to get a little peeved. Then just as the banging of draws and the rustling through bags stopped another sound started. A sort of sanding noise. I thought maybe he was cleaning something and it wouldn't take too long. But no this constant sound that reminded me of sandpaper on wood went on for over forty five minutes before finally I snapped.

Separated by just a thin curtain the noise was driving me crazy. I spoke out in a loud voice and asked if he wouldn't mind stop making that noise as it was making it difficult to sleep.
Still the noise continued without a word of acknowledgement from the patient in the next bed.
Finally I called for the nurse and asked if she could check what he was up to. "He's just un-packing his stuff" she replied. "No he's not, it sound's like Geppetto's workshop in here" I replied. "I'm expecting a small wooden boy to appears at any minute!"

The sanding noise stopped, she shrugged her shoulders and left. The scratch, scratch, scratch soon returned and was occasionally punctuated with the odd puff as he (from what I imagined) blew the sawdust from his workings.

Then as midnight approached and I contemplated a full on confrontation with Geppetto, but not really sure if I could pull it off in my weakened state, a woman vistor entered the room and proceeded to have a very loud conversation with him. Now visiting hours are strictly over at 8:30pm on this ward, so how she got in I don't know. However the sanding noise had now stopped and I found it easier to relax to the sounds of people talking than the mechanical noise of pseudo toy-making.
Then just as I was about to dose off, patient A, who had said nothing all night suddenly exploded and demanded that they shut-up and that visiting time was well and truly over.

Instantly a nurse appeared and offered us earplugs. "NO! I do not want earplugs, I want peace and quiet" demanded patient A. All went quiet and the nurse scurried away. Geppetto and his visitor reduced to barely audible whispers.
Within a minute or two a security orderly appeared and told Geppetto that he was being moved, That they had found him a room to himself. And then he was gone. I asked the nurse what it was that he was sanding, she once again shrugged, turned away closing the curtain behind her and all was peaceful.

Sleep came quickly and it was not long before I realised from within my sleep state that I was cold. It was at this point I should have woken and taken more panadol. However I was past the point of no return and my brain had come up with another plan. There were two of me, one was cold from fever and the other was just cold. It was not until both of me equalised that I was allowed to wake and obtain more medication from the nurse.

This surreal dream state went on for hours, meanwhile I was knotted in a shivering delirious ball at the bottom of my bed. Finally around 4am I broke free of my self induced madness and called the nurse. By 5am I was drenched in sweat between soaking wet sheets wondering if things could get any worse. I changed my clothes and spent the next few hours on top of my bed wondering what Geppetto had been making.. Pinocchio? a small wooden bird? or did he just have incredibly long toe nails and only a very small file? I'll guess the two of me will never know. ;)