Well Tracy and I are already for an egg retrieval tomorrow.

We've been out for rides on each of the last two days and have had to use an extra dose of the trigger hormone, but apparently this is becoming more common.

My Uncle Peter and his wife Sue are going to be here in Sydney over the weekend to see the stage production of The Phantom of the Opera and we hope to catch up with them for a coffee or meal before they return.

And on a sad note only four more rostered shifts before holidays.

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

Smart Pay

This is a question for the ASNSW people who read the blog, sorry.

I've been getting a message for a week now of a new version of Smart Pay but all the home pages I go to are for older versions.

Has anyone contacted Bruce about the new version?
I have Version 4.0 what is the cost of the upgrade to 4.09?

I await your replies

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

As previous readers will know Tracy and I are on an IVF (in vetro fertilisation) program.

A quick update is that we should have a egg retrieval on Friday and implant a couple of fertilised ones on Monday and I can be present for both.

Most of the nightly injections Tracy has had to do by herself as I have been working and I have likewise not made it to a single blood test or scan.

So time will tell if there will be a little Taz to come.




Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

It's gone a bit QUIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any day on the job I'd be abused by my workmates for using the 'Q' word but it's true.

Well for me it is.

No juicy jobs to titillate you with.
No points to ponder.
A bit of politics which is of no interest if your not from the Ambulance Service of NSW.

But it's a seasonal thing.

It's been cold as buggery and pissing down with very heavy storms and that has just driven the punters away.

So has anyone out there got something interesting to say?


Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

Only in Sydney

Right, WYD and the Catholic squad have been and gone.

What's next on the Grand Events for public access???








Sexpo 2008!

Only a week after the Pope was here you and/or your partner can wander the long aisle of intimate items.



Got to love Sydney

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

Union Rally,

A really great turn-out for the rally with lots of support from the public.

While I am someone who likes my two ten hrs day shifts and the two fourteen hrs night shifts I can see that twelve hrs shifts are going to come one day, the 'F' word and even then there will still be staff who think that they don't have to prepare for their shifts to ensure they are in peak condition at work.

Who would work twelve hrs with only wenty minute breaks?

Fair Work and Fair Pay, and all that too!

The World Youth Day festivities may be over but the pilgrims still haunt the city. I was talking to one of the prettier brethren of the constabulary (Police) about had there been any targeting of the pilgrims by the seedy underbelly of the city and she tells me that the whole event had been reasonably incident free when the increase of potential victims is considered.

I guess it was because they moved around the city in 'God Gangs' ha. ha, ha!


Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

I've got to take holidays again!

While it only seems like last month I am due and required to take another three weeks holiday soon.

So I have to take whatever overtime I can to build up the bank balance because holidays always takes a toll on the funds. To that end I have a couple of night shifts lined up that will do that.

There is a bit of a push on at the moment by the union to bring to the public's attention some less than attractive offers for alterations to our work.

There is a rally on Tuesday the 22nd in Martin Place in Sydney in the morning to do this, it is timed to coincide with a local television morning show broadcast and I hope that as many officers attend as possible.

I believe by the nature of the job, the type of people who are ambulance officers are not what I might call militant but strong resolve must be shown to ensure that the advances and increases made in treatment and procedures that are now part of the qualified ambulance officers role are also recognised in a financial way.

We bring to the public a calm, authoritative reassurance that all is going to be ok!

We deal with the public when it seems that their whole world has turned upside down and down the poo shoot!

We are there in the dark and lonely places, in the wet and windy ones too helping to ease their pain!

We bring order and direction to the chaos of their accident!

We accept the blood, poo, wee, vomit, tears, anger and violence, it's just all part of our job!

If you are not an ambo but support us you are welcome to come to the rally.

Well that's about a militant as I get but it is my livelihood.

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

The Challenge has been completed!!!!!!!

With the world youth day underway here in Sydney the challenge made on the last post has been met.

At approx 2100 Hrs while responding to a nothing job I got out,
'Holy speed bumps Batman' over the radio.

Do you have word challenges at your station?

We would have a word of the week at a station I worked at previously.

For example 'defenestrate' - the action of throwing a person out of a window!!!!

Let me know

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

My mission!

I have one day shift and two nights to complete over the World Youth Day Festivities.

My mission is to somehow incorporate the phrase 'Holy Speed Bumps Batman' into a radio transmission.

If your on the East in Sydney listen out!

Or do you fancy that you have better phrase?

As always I'm open to your comments.

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

World Youth Day

It's started.

We have been overrun with Catholic youth and others here in Sydney to celebrate this event.

Media reported 150,000 attended the opening Mass at Darling Harbour today.

Research done by Zeitz, Zeitz & Kadow-Griffin on 'Injury occurrence at a mass gathering event' published in JEPHC vol3, issue 1-2, 2005, indicates that we are going to be run wild with this influx of people.

No shit Sherlock!

The road closures are going to be a bitch but I'm damn happy I ride to work on a push bike.



Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

Hi everyone,

The last set of nights while providing some mildly interesting work did not provide anything that I wanted to share with you apart maybe from the little Asian girl who had consumed lots of whisky and half a cow, or that's what I estimate from the vomit on the footpath, in the back of the ambulance, and even in the triage area and just before transfer onto the hospital bed!

With reference to a previous entry this vomit did not smell like garlic!

I would also like to note the passing of a fellow blogger.

I have never read her blog and became aware of her death via the media.

Olive Riley passed away last Saturday in a nursing home aged 108 years (three months short of 109). Olive was acknowledged as the worlds oldest blogger and lived in Woy Woy on the Central Coast of NSW here in Australia.

(http://www.worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com/)


On a Mental Health issue (no not mine!). There were some very significant changes to the Law last year with increases in the powers of Ambulance Officers in search and detaining of patients believed to have mental health issues.

There has been delays in the roll out of these powers, with the necessity of each officer to undertake an additional days training that includes Mechanical Restraint Devices (MRDs) that we in the city trialled two years ago.

Well the pendulum has swung and I got a call from Sector Office about my interest this morning. So ten or so of my fellow officers will do this and get the much needed extra powers to do pretty much what I do now but by a different route.

Now if they would sign off on the analgesia issue,,,,,,,,

But that's for a different post.



Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

Bloody roadworks.

I'm going to have to use a different route to and from work.
There is so much development and associated roadworks and temporary footpaths that I had a stack this morning on the way home!

Small facial graze (hidden by the moustache) and an abrasion on the forearm.

I didn't have a syncope (Tracy's stack).
Just brushed myself off.
Quietly abused those who had erected the barrier fencing and continued on my way!

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

Beware the flower pots!

So this was a job,

C/t - 62 y/o male, fallen, intoxicated, unable to feel hands.

O/a - Pt found outside on concrete patio in a supine position, (it's about 2200hrs and cold) he states he has been out here for over 30 min before he could raise the Girlfriends attention.

O/e - Pt conscious, alert, intoxicated by admission and smells like a brewery, orientated to Dd/Mm/Yy, hypothermic at 35.3 tympanic and centrally well perfused. (Site layout - pt is lying at the bottom of about six steps that lead up from the patio to the street level. there are lots of pot plants on each end of the steps with 4-5 broken on the second step. There is a very skittish dog running around)

Pt states, the dog tripped him, he fell onto the pots, rolled to the patio and could not feel both legs or left hand/arm. Movement was seen in all limbs but not purposeful and no grip strength in hand.

Pt's only visible injury is a very small laceration 1cm above his left eyebrow.

Of course full spinal precautions are taken (we have motor & sensory deficit).
Extrication with assistance from G/f and a code 3 passed to the receiving hospital.

Mechanism is really very low (height wise),
Alcohol on board, always a danger as it hides injury and pain,
The biggie's are the deficits. I saw the pt cross his legs but when asked he didn't feel it or know that he had. I saw movement and wagging of the ankles as well as the left arm move but not the hand.

Eight hour later,

The pt is still in the Resuc bay collared, still with deficit although he could straighten a bent knee he couldn't bend it from straight??? There has been a brief episode of Priapism! Never a good sign if your thinking spinal and X-ray showed no fracture or fault.

Side note Blood Alcohol Level over .2 ( .05 is the legal limit to drive in Australia). Now I had to leave for my Nan's funeral and did not get to follow up the next shift.

From other officers who did that for me the pt was suffering a Spinal Cord Compression Injury caused by a haematoma most likely from the impact with the irregular edges of one of the terracotta pot plants.

There was no Spinal Column deformity and the swelling was monitored and self resolved.

From this we learn,

1) Never judge or dismiss the intoxicated person.
2) Keep an open mind.
3) You will never get bunged for following your protocols and procedure for a patient.
4) BUT YOU WILL GET CRUCIFIED IF YOU DON"T DO ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5) Everyone is sick and enjoy the opportunity to play with stuff.

Now the proof reader says that I should explain some of the terms used above but I think I'll leave them for you to look up or alternatively you can ask me.



Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz

We're back!

Did ya' miss me?

Don't matter, I missed you dear reader.

Tracy and I have just got back into town from my Nan's funeral in Tasmania.
What a wonderful time to visit Tassie, 1 degree temps over night and if your lucky 8-10 degrees during some part of the day. Snow down to the foot hills behind the city, wonderful weather really lets you know your alive.

Thank you to the sole person who acknowledged my loss, I know the rest of you just felt uneasy to make a comment.

I hope to have a interesting case followup for you in the next day or so. It occurred on my last nights and involved a different spinal diagnosis I hope. I have not heard anything disastrous about the job while I was away at least!

Well that will do I have a F1 race to watch from England (Go Mark Webber) so I'll see you soon.

Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz