“Yep, we’ve been married four and a half years now.”
“Long time. Where is he from?”
“India, originally.”
“So are you Indian too?”
“No, I’m Pakistani.”
“My daughter wants to get married to a Turkish guy. We are
Egyptian. I don’t know what to do. What’s it like being married to someone from
a different country? How do you manage? I don’t know what to do. She’s my
eldest. Everyone marries Egyptians in our family. I don’t know what do!”
The Radiographer poked the needle in me again, exasperated.
I flinched and clenched my teeth as he tried again to find a vein. Not an easy
task in my case; apparently I have very difficult veins to find – either that,
or the staff at UCLH are just not very good at finding them. ‘Calm down, man!’ I thought to myself, ‘I
know you’d rather be poking sharp things in your daughter right now, but spare
me, please!’ I quietly cried inside.
Once again, I found myself in a position I did not want to
be in. Maybe I have one of those faces, but for some reason, most doctors and
nurses I come across seem to think I am the
person to spill their life stories to. Now, don’t peg me for a sucker, I know
pity-talk when I hear it – and no, they don’t talk to me out of pity. Doctors
and nurses come across thousands of patients, and to them, I’m just another
name on a list. So I put it down to my baby face – in particular, the baby
cheeks which refused to go away even after I reached and left puberty.
And so he tried again, whilst I explained to him just how
similar Faisal’s and mine’s family backgrounds were. Clearly he wasn’t too
happy with the explanation I gave, and poked another needle in me – this time,
without the ‘sharp scratch’ warning. This one finally drew blood, and the rest of the CT prep was done in
silence. When he’d finally finished, I gathered my things and scurried off back
to my seat.
‘Darn you and your chubby cheeks, Naaila,’ I thought, not
for the first time.
Lessons of the day:
- When someone is in a position to poke sharp things in you, tell them what they want to hear. Just trust me on this one.
