'I've never seen you before in my life'
Said to me by a doctor at Jessop's hospital in Sheffield at my follow up appointment after probably my 6th or 7th miscarriage.
He had sat on my hospital bed 6 weeks previously, before I was taken down to theatre for the remains of the 14 week pregnancy removing. He offered kind words and sympathy, read my notes and told me he was on secondment from St Mary's hospital in London and said he had experience of what was going wrong. When you come to your follow up appointment, be sure to see me, insist even if you aren't on my list. So I did.
I said, well that's probably understandable you must see lots of patients, read my notes, you wrote down lots of things. We have lost your notes, said he, giving the nurse in the room a look which suggested I was a psychopath. Jessop's lost my notes many times over the 5 years I'd been attending for secondary infertility.
Ok I said, get the examination over with and on leaving the room, I said it might be an idea, to never give another patient hope, like you gave me.
I cried all the way home and decided it was the end of the road for me, in my attempt to successfully obtain a much wanted second child.