Overexcited
Ah, night shifts, our fickle friend. Will it be a quiet night, with calls spaced as such that we can get a few winks? Or will it be a night where every hour, on the hour the fine citizens of our town will call us to their aid?
My night was somewhere in between, as I ended up with maybe an hour and a half of real sleep. But, I must take into account the fact that I am still a little nervous and overexcited while at work, and had a hard time chillaxing enough to actually sleep. After each of the late night calls I found myself in bed lying on my back, staring at the ceiling, thinking about what I might have changed about the call, or what motivated the caller to require our services.
We started out with a classic: blood sugar of 19, splayed out on the floor. What made this one a little different was the fact that the patients relative was doing what I like to call the "price is right dance" when we arrived. FD was already on scene and with the patient who was in the basement. When I walked in the house the overexcited relative materialized out of nowhere and began shouting about him being downstairs and that I had to hurry, while rushing me down the stairs. Ellie doesn't like overexcited relatives. "Okay, please slow down, and tell me where he is." Now we're getting somewhere. I carefully went down the stairs, and was pleased to find some firefighters and a patient and not something more sinister. The relative continued to bounce around excitedly, and once we took the pts. blood sugar, immediately decided to run upstairs for some orange juice. Okay, you do that while we do something a little faster and a lot more feasible on an unconscious person. A few seconds later, the patient was totally fine, and predictably refusing transport. We left shortly after; our patient with a sandwich and his relative with a straight jacket.
Later, we had a sleepy overdose, a "panic attack" a headache, and new onset a-fib.
The OD was attempting to, um, not be alive, but 3200 mg of an anti-seizure medication later, our patient could barely keep her head up, was vomiting, and generally miserable.
The patient with the headache was walking to the hospital, got lost, and decided to call 911 instead of asking for directions.
I love to ask at 3am "What changed now that made you call us?" thinking that there must have been a catalyst of some sort to prompt the call. Unfortunately, usually this question yields uninteresting answers like: "It's just been going on for so long..." or "nothing really." But, our a-fib patient, although didn't have a good answer to my question, did have a legitimate problem.
Google search term of the week: "“work never hurt anybody" Clearly googled by someone not in EMS.
My night was somewhere in between, as I ended up with maybe an hour and a half of real sleep. But, I must take into account the fact that I am still a little nervous and overexcited while at work, and had a hard time chillaxing enough to actually sleep. After each of the late night calls I found myself in bed lying on my back, staring at the ceiling, thinking about what I might have changed about the call, or what motivated the caller to require our services.
We started out with a classic: blood sugar of 19, splayed out on the floor. What made this one a little different was the fact that the patients relative was doing what I like to call the "price is right dance" when we arrived. FD was already on scene and with the patient who was in the basement. When I walked in the house the overexcited relative materialized out of nowhere and began shouting about him being downstairs and that I had to hurry, while rushing me down the stairs. Ellie doesn't like overexcited relatives. "Okay, please slow down, and tell me where he is." Now we're getting somewhere. I carefully went down the stairs, and was pleased to find some firefighters and a patient and not something more sinister. The relative continued to bounce around excitedly, and once we took the pts. blood sugar, immediately decided to run upstairs for some orange juice. Okay, you do that while we do something a little faster and a lot more feasible on an unconscious person. A few seconds later, the patient was totally fine, and predictably refusing transport. We left shortly after; our patient with a sandwich and his relative with a straight jacket.
Later, we had a sleepy overdose, a "panic attack" a headache, and new onset a-fib.
The OD was attempting to, um, not be alive, but 3200 mg of an anti-seizure medication later, our patient could barely keep her head up, was vomiting, and generally miserable.
The patient with the headache was walking to the hospital, got lost, and decided to call 911 instead of asking for directions.
I love to ask at 3am "What changed now that made you call us?" thinking that there must have been a catalyst of some sort to prompt the call. Unfortunately, usually this question yields uninteresting answers like: "It's just been going on for so long..." or "nothing really." But, our a-fib patient, although didn't have a good answer to my question, did have a legitimate problem.
Google search term of the week: "“work never hurt anybody" Clearly googled by someone not in EMS.
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