A Work in Progress

I finished my last set of weekend transfer shifts yesterday. On Saturday we had back to back long distance calls (transport over 70 miles) that was fun. The first call was for a guy who broke his neck and the second was a baby with meningitis. I was happy to have staff come with us for the baby, although she was no trouble. I doomed us to another trip when I said: “Ah, goodbye ___ hospital!” On Sunday we had a nice relaxing day doing a couple of local calls and then one long one that was really annoying. Also on Sunday, in the middle of April, it was snowing/slushing/raining and being generally gross outside. There were many accidents in the city due to this springy? mix. Right now it has been raining more or less for two days straight. Many roads were closed today due to flooding. I only know this because I went out with the camera trying to get shots of local rivers, but I was denied. Oh well. Even I had to turn around without being forced to by closed road signs. I lo...

We arrived to a diabetic call and the fire department had taken a blood sugar and read 80 (not horribly low). The patient though had an altered mental status, could barely speak, and certainly couldn't walk. I would have guessed that her sugar was more like 30 or 40 and I was growing a little concerned about her. She was with it enough to eat a candy bar and her well meaning boyfriend was giving her juice. He refilled it and I looked at the bottle. It was sugar free juice. We all had a good laugh about it, and the patient was feeling and looking much better. We took her sugar again and it was 71. Hmm. I was then certain that the glucometer was not working right the first time. Now that she was more coherent, the patient definitely refused transport and promised that she'd eat breakfast. We had an interesting back pain that was causing a seemingly tough guy to be literally doubled over in pan. I can only guess that he threw his back out or something like that. It was one of the ...

Last week I had a 72 hour work week. I haven't decided yet if this is good or bad. I'm sure that when my paycheck comes it will be a good thing. As for now, after working seven days straight I'm not so sure it's a good thing. In just under 12 hours I'll be finishing up my last pottery class and then flying home to test for a job. In the last week after 48 hours of 911 and 24 hours of interfacility and I've had what seems to be a ton of calls. We had a lady who had chest pain for four days before she decided to call 911. When we got there it was radiating to her left arm, and she had prolonged Q waves and inverted T waves in some leads. So she could have had a heart attack or was almost having one. Oddly, she was someone who should have called who didn't. I've had several people fall down and not hurt themselves. A lot of our nursing facilities here aren't allowed to pick their residents up when they fall, so we have to go do it. Also, abou...

Last, last weekend we got called to take a multi system trauma to a level 1 trauma center. Our patient had been jogging on the road, going against traffic has she should have, and a person came around a corner too widely, crossed the center line, hitting her in the back. Among scrapes and bruises, the patient had a ruptured bladder, a broken leg in two places, and widening of pubic symphysis (the ligaments that hold your pelvis together). She was pretty stable and wasn’t any trouble on the ride to the other hospital, but I was happy to give her as much morphine as she wanted. A few weeks ago we went for a psych problem. When we arrived we found a little lady who had apparently called the police and threatened suicide. We take that pretty seriously, and were happy to take her to the hospital for help. She was ranting and raging about something or other and then yelled even more when we came in about how Medicare wouldn’t pay for the ride to the hospital. We assured her that we could wri...

Just as I closed the lid on my box of gloves, hats, and boots and folded my winter coats into a duffle bag, the temperature dipped and the skies opened to illustrate that spring is not exactly here. I’m now looking out on a snowy winter scene right outside my window. I’m trying to convince myself that it’s April and Easter is in just a few days although it feels more like Christmas. It’s supposed to stay coldish for the rest of the week. On Thursday morning it took me half an hour to clean the 5 inches of snow off my car as I shook my fist at the sky. Earlier this week, I was called in for a 24 which I happily accepted as OT is always welcome. We started the evening for a call for a medication reaction. Real potential to be cool. We arrived to find a 30ish year old looking fine, and in no distress. me: “Hello, what’s going on?” patient: “I think I’m having a reaction to medicine I took.” me: “Okay, what did you take?” patient: “Benadryl.” me: “Benadryl?” patient: “Yeah...

Last weekish I went back home for a visit. It was nice, although I didn’t spend enough time with everyone who is important to me. Ewing and I did get to hang out a lot. We went to a Hudson Trails annual winter clearance sale and bought a second Pisgah! We were certainly not in the market for a new kayak, but we couldn’t resist saving about $600 off the retail price. So now we have twin kayaks, but we won’t get them mixed up as mine is blue and his is parking cone orange. We also visited Great Falls for the first time with his sister. I had never been there and underestimated the awesomeness of it! Here are some photos , although they aren't mine. The potomac was flooded from the recent snow and rain in the area, and the falls looked scary and were fascinating. I could look at a creek all day, let alone this huge expanse of whitewater. It was great, haha, great (falls)! I also picked up my dress which needs altering, of course. To start, I’m short and secondly, I think I ...

So, I’ve been meaning to update for about three weeks, and somehow I am only getting around to it now. A lot of things are going on at once but that is no excuse to neglect the old blog for so long. I’ll start with a 24 I did a few weeks ago before I went home for a week. The day half I worked with my friend and roommate, it was good fun. Thanks to that day, whenever I’m feeling down, I just think of Andy helping a drunk, naked, middle aged fat guy to put on some pants and I feel much better. Ah, gets me every time! Wow was he drunk. Like, 30 pack of bud drunk. Before that we took two patients at once after a guy decided to turn left from the right lane. Before that we had a lady who said she was "kickboxed" by someone. I’m not exactly sure what that means. We started with a guy who slipped on the ice and dislocated his shoulder. We tried to make him comfortable, but he refused pain meds. We ended the night with a call for foot pain. This call was probably the c...