So while the mother worried about syphilis now knows she should seek medical care, it could still take her days to reach a hospital, where the staff may be overstretched, jeopardising her chance of being treated.
But it was with the community charge, universally known as the poll tax, that Mrs Thatcher overstretched herself in her war with local government.
"He overstretched his knee," said Wenger.
Though Rai Bachchan proves a fierce courtroom presence, her agony at seeing her offspring spirited away is decidedly overstretched: witness her extended pre-intermission slo-mo charge towards the kidnappers' SUV after her girl is spied in the backseat.
Her resources overstretched by the two-front war, Germany pursued a policy of breaking up Russia from inside by providing financial support both to revolutionary groups such as the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs), and separatist factions such as the Finnish activists leaning toward Germanism.
Kim Lennon said she and her colleagues were so overstretched they could not meet the needs of prisoners, which is causing major friction on the wings.
Her fellow employees are similarly overstretched, working illicit weekend jobs.
Hospital staff members were able to tend to her sporadically, but they are overstretched.
Her own songs, including the acclaimed King's Horses and title track, can sound formal, but references to holiday parks, launderettes and Freud ground them, and her Joni-like vocal wanderings are never overstretched.
My grandma's final days (which lasted about two years) were mottled with difficult questions: "When are you taking me away from here?" "Can I live with you?" "Do you have any money to get me better care?" It should be said that her carers were great, but they were overstretched.
