It all started so well, I took Amy to Mother and toddler and she had a lovely time playing outside then we came home waited for Steve to come home at lunch time then went food shopping, all this went smoothly but when we got home I was very tired so I went for a lay down while Steve watched Amy.

I was suddenly awoken by Steve calling me to wake me up and being told that Amy had stuck a pencil in her ear, you know when you first hear something you find startling it doesn't sink in (especially if you have just woken up)  I made him repeat what he said " Amy was quite happy drawing while I was decorating in the front room when she screamed and announced that she had a pencil stuck in her ear then she pulled it out and said the end was gone and that it was still stuck in her ear" It turns out that my first awful vision of her having pierced her eardrum with a pencil was unfounded she had actually managed to break the end of the pencil off in her ear and the lead was stuck inside, Steve knew this was true as he had looked in her ear with a torch. so my first thought was she needed to go to A&E then I paused and thought as we were just up the road from the doctors that they might be able to help so I phoned them and they were as much use as a chocolate teapot and said they weren't sure what to do but may be we should contact the children's A&E  at the local hospital which I did who said to take Amy in.

When we arrived we were signed in and told to take a seat in the waiting room just inside the main entrance, then after 20 minutes was called by a nurse and taken to a second waiting room where we waited another 30 minutes to be seen then when we were eventually seen the nurse just looked in her ear and then sent us back to the waiting room where we waited for a further 20 minutes to be called by the same nurse to tell us that her colleague wanted to have a look, she said she would be able to remove it and got a small set of forceps out, turned on a large lamp and Amy sit on Steve's lap while this nurse poked around so much that Amy was reduced to tears and we were sent back to the waiting room. The same nurse returned shortly afterwards to ask for a contact telephone number for us and I had a hunch that they were thinking of sending Amy home without treatment, we were then ushered into a side room and told that it could only be removed by an ENT specialist and that there was no ENT specialist on site and that we may be able to get an appointment tomorrow to have it removed, I immediately said I was not happy about taking Amy home without it being removed as they couldn't be sure that she may get an infection or be able to push it further in. This hospital we were at is the Main hospital in Brighton which has just had a brand new state of the art children's hospital build to the tune of millions but apparently this does not include an ENT consultant, now what is the most common thing for a toddler to do, stick things up their nose or in their ears. but there was no need for a children's ENT department! I was sure there must be someone on site that could remove it but no so they contacted the Princess royal in Haywards Heath where there was an ENT consultant who I was lucky enough not only to talk to but to meet person later, she explained that she was the only specialist covering 3 major hospitals in Sussex and that it was impossible for Amy to be seen, I said I was unwilling to take her home with a foreign object in her ear and that I was quite willing to come to her, again this was against hospital protocol as she was working on an adult ward so knowing that this hospital had an A&E I suggested that I could meet her there but she was unable to leave the ward (remember this consultant was covering 3 hospitals between Haywards heath and worthing a great distance for someone who couldn't leave the ward!) she asked for a contact number so I told her I was reachable at the children's A&E when she could sort out treatment for my daughter. Her reply was that she would contact me back shortly half an hour later the nurse returned with Amy's notes and told us to take her to the Albourne ward at the princess royal Haywards Heath and ask for the ENT SHO! (SHO senior house officer that's a trainee covering the 3 mayor hospitals in sussex) so we drove there and finally found the ward after wandering unchallenged round a hospital with a maternity suite! Then had to wait another 30 minutes before what could only be described as a scruffy college student turned up announcing herself as the ENT specialist we were rushed to a small room that looked like a store room and confronted by what looked like an over-sized black dentist chair, that scared me let alone Amy so while I tried to comfort her to sit her in the chair the ENT SHO huffed and sighed with impatient then announced she was going to try and use suction to remove the lead and promptly switched on the noisiest machine possible which spooked Amy and that turned into a screaming fit which lead the ENT SHO to say she was leaving the room as she had rational patients to deal with! This finally got me mad and I told Steve to take Amy out and to wait for me while I found the ENT SHO and told her I was leaving with my irrational child to place a complaint and to find a qualified consultant she glared at me and told me to wait as she had patients to see and she would then come and talk to me, I did wait outside and when she appeared I asked if there was anyone senior to her we could see, she asked why I explained that her attitude was wrong for dealing with children and that I wished to speak to someone who had more experience which she answered with I would be told there was nothing else that could be done and that I would have to wait to be seen tomorrow so Amy could have the object removed surgically and that the on call consultant wouldn't attend from home as this was not an emergency and not worth his time. Of course I latched onto the "on call" comment and told her to phone him and that I would take my chances as to whether he would attend, she sighed and said as she walked away " oh my god!"

She reappeared shortly afterwards with she couldn't contact the On Call consultant and that was all she could do until we could be seen tomorrow, so  I asked to speak to the registrar, this took her by surprise and she agreed to phone him this time I followed and listened in while she huffed her side down the phone then handed it over to me after asking if the registrar would speak to the "Para P"!

I spoke to him and outlined what had happened and that I wasn't happy with Amy's treatment and that Amy's reaction was not helped by the ENT SHO attitude he promised to see me tomorrow and apologised for us being pillar and posted and that I was right about the children's hospital and that it should have a children's ENT but it didn't because of lack of government funding so i said I would forward all the details of this fiasco onto my MP, which he answered I'm sure that they won't change government policy for me, I replied I didn't expect that but as he was blaming the government they had a right to know. We now have an appointment for tomorrow at 2pm and because I felt like I lacked Mother skills to comfort Amy have sked Steve to ask his mother along to see if she can persuade Amy to let them suction it out and you know that out of all of this hurts the worst as I now have had to admit defeat to a women who doesn't see fit to introduce me to anyone as her sons wife and grandchild's mother, this may just be pregnancy hormones but I feel like a complete failure, my daughter has had to go to bed worrying about the thing in he ear and I am unable to comfort her properly to have treatment done, I feel so useless.