Farewell Dubbo!

While it is my last day off it was the last day at our station of an officer who has become family.

Dubbo!

Being nicknamed from where he came from he now returns to a station near to there so he can be close to his kids.

I missed the Pub Crawl because I was on my night shift but at the end of the night shift this morning we had a farewell BBQ at station so I jumped on the bike and rode on up.

He will be missed by all for although he was among the newest of the Qualified Officers the maturity of his years was greatly sort after by younger officers.

He was also a bloody good bloke.

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

Taz

And on my days off I did?

No O/t at all because I didn't make myself available for it!

I had things to do on the first two days but Tracy has had an very swollen left hand that we have been to the LMO three times for now. Xrays have been done and antibiotics started.

The has been no trauma, no known bite, it's not her primary hand and the swelling has been rapid.

So I have decided to not bugger off on O/t.

I have also had to attempt to complete the fifty book the shop has ordered by myself.

The swelling has started to reduce but we still don't know why it occured?

And that's it.


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

Taz

Night shifts.

So after we changed the tyre,

Middle aged male with back pain (sounds very much like sciatica) and during the rest of the history, not associated with chief complaint, have you had any SOB? 'Yes' and goes on to describe chest pain (using a clenched fist).
I had very tall T waves, a third of the QRS complexes recorded possibly indicating ST depression (it's a defib not a diagnostic and it gets rough treatment)so I started to treat cardiac as well.

Assist a pt to bed after they misjudged the transfer from their walker to the edge of the bed.

Transport a retrieval team with an intubated pt from Air Ambulance to an ICU.

Non suicidal OD (just wanting to get some sleep after an emotional event) but woke up and had a fall with really bad haematoma's and contusions due to the fact they dozed off again so several more hours had passed before we arrived.

Asymptomatic 9o+ y/o male who had chest pain hours ago in a Rehab Hospital???????? I'm still not sure why they called us, they have their own Medical staff.

Next night.

Mental Health - Voluntary pt.
Motor Bike v truck, for the lack of safety clothing (helmet only) no gloves, Bondi Safety Boots (thongs/sandals) no leathers he was lucky to have such minor injuries.
Duplicate call so we turned up to find one of our own crews already there.
Pluritic chest pain.
Two people from the cruise ship that did, have some children who had the swine flu, who were concerned even though they didn't have any symptoms.

And there were farewell drinks on yesterday for one of our staff who is leaving and I had to work. From the one story that I've heard about the night so far, I'm glad I did.

Someone turned up at work, very inebriated after being refused entry to a Pizza Shop because they were Sooo Pissed! Can't wait to see they next time to give'm heaps.



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

Taz

They do come in three's!

You know,
Celebrity deaths, plane crashes and flat tires.

On our second day shift one of our officers had a flat on their private vehicle and was requesting some assistance with undoing the wheel nuts. My Padawan and I responded, and got her going (1).

As I got my bicycle out of the shed to ride up on our first night shift it had a flat front tyre, luckily Tracy's bike is the same size as mine so I 'borrowed' her front tyre complete!!! (2).

In the completion of our pre-shift car check on the same night, the passenger side rear was very noticeably flatter on the bottom that the others?
There is a bloody great bolt sticking out of it!
Three crew per shift at our station.
Normally five cars on station.
One at the panel beaters and one with a busted door handle.
We have no spare car.
We have to change it ourselves (3).


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

Taz

Suicide attempt on Paracetamol, making it worse the patient had medical knowledge fully knowing what a horrible way it is to die.

Transfers to and from hospitals

A normal person who has had a four day history of increasing centralised supra pubic abdo pain but all the various functions down there are working ok?

Hypo, with other issues, got transported because he didn't come up enough with the glucose gel. I think there was something else he wouldn't fuss-up about, let them run bloods on him.

And the last job was a person who told us three different stories before arriving at the truth of a street incident that resulted in a knife in the bum for them!!!!!
Hey, it's the dirty, ugly big smoke.

Bright spot I got my authority to carry and use morphine.

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

Taz

Rain, Rain go away, come back another day.

It's Raining Cats and Dogs and there are Poodles all over the place.

Well that's my ol' Fart joke.

Not as wet here in Sydney as other places in Australia but it has impacted on my work today.

I think today it best described as we're the Bandaid Bus.

And I think it'll be the same tomorrow

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

Taz

If you thought I made big bucks from my Question Book.

There are eleven A4 pages to each booklet.

There are two booklet pages per A4 sheet as shown here.



With the aid of a guillotine they are trimmed on the long side and off the bottom then across the middle to produce two pages that then need to be folded in half to have the print on both sides.

The current production run is for 100 copies.

This next photo shows the result of about six hours work by Tracy and myself to trim the 1100 A4 pages to get 2200 booklet pages. That's our dinner table that here doubles as a production platform.




They are then laminated, four booklet pages to an A4 laminate pouch creating 550 laminate pages.




Two laminated, only 98 to go!

These are in turn trimmed to final size, back to 2200 booklet pages.

Hole punched and bound.

It takes one hour to make four booklets I've worked out.

But every time someone says 'Your the guy who put that out', 'I found it so helpful' the bent back and cramps just disappear.

So I cover my cost basiclly when you add the hours and handling.

The finished item.


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

Taz

The days off.

It's taken four of the days for the back and thighs to recover from the pursuit.

Tracy's car got clipped while parked out on the road and I had to locate a replacement side mirror, see Unpaid Advertisement post. It arrived Monday and Tracy put it on herself yesterday. That's my girl, one of many talents.

Yesterday evening I attended an ACAP education session at Rozelle on Neuromuscular Incapacitating (NMI) devices. The most attendees I can recall for a long time, obviously a very interesting topic.

While there I was told that a large quantity of my 'Patient Question Book for Trainee Ambulance Officers' had been ordered by an external agency leaving the ACAP shop with only a few in store.

I got the pages for another one hundred printed off today and during the afternoon Tracy and I set about cutting them up prior to the laminating, re-cutting, hole punching and binding that all has to be done by hand because it's an unusual size and to have it done professionally, even in bulk would double the price easy.



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

Taz

Not a way to finish off your night shift!

We're waiting at triage for a spot to be readied for our pt.
I'm just sitting in one of the plastic seats, not really thinking about anything, as you do at this time other than getting home and into bed.

During the night we had heard a job with a person in the water somewhere in our patch.

The Ambulance entry to triage has two doors that are opened from the inside by buttons, each in a different location (you can always pick the out of area crews because they don't know this).

A cleaning staff member has opened the inner door to clean the floor in that area when a pt dressed in a hospital gown and blanket walks up behind them and opens the outer door.

This does not appear to be right to me somewhere in the fog of thoughts of home and something makes me get up and follow.

Outside in the Ambulance Bay is a Nursing staff member standing Gob Smacked pointing to the driveway and the pt disappearing around the corner.

I ask 'Are they supposed to be here?', 'Yes their scheduled' (Mental Health Act). There are none of the hospitals Security Staff about, so off I go!

How the hell do the Cops run with all that stuff on their belts??????
This is the first time when I have fully regretted my 'Bat Belt'.

Out onto the road they go, up to the traffic lights and around the corner away from the heavier traffic luckily, I think am I making any ground up yet, they don't have any shoes on?

Another hundred metres or so and they head off over a bridge.

I've been at work for eleven and a half hours without sleep,
I have size 9-1/2 Swat Boots on,
I have a belt that holds my portable radio one side and my main gear pouch the other as well as the six or so other bits that hold other stuff weighing 2.6kg,
I'm 20mm short on my left leg due to hip surgery when I was Thirteen,
I don't run!

Yes I am catching up but will my legs keep going?

I shout, in my most Commanding, Breathless voice to 'STOP', they falter and look over their shoulder (that's got to be worth at least another ten metres to me).

I've now closed the gap to that 'just out of arms reach', my knees are hurting but I lunge and get a handful of blanket that they don't let go of allowing me to get a better hold and stop them without a struggle.

Stuff me!

We start walking back to the A&E past the bemused looks of motorists, still on the bridge, the footpath is on the other side over a tall hand rail and I can't be bothered trying to get them and me over that.

Back up at the traffic lights I spot the first of the Security Guards who had been directed back that way by the same bemused motorists because the pursuit had taken us around the back of the hospital into the surrounding streets.

He soon joins us and takes charge of my catch and we are soon joined by another two and return to the A&E where my pt has now been unloaded.

In my favour;
The pt was small and female so I didn't entertain any ideas that I may have been in any physical danger from them.
Bare footed and holding the blanket with both hands so they were not running as fast as they possibly could.

I also wonder if I had gained some ground while they looked and considered going over the side of the bridge (twenty metre drop to lower road) ultimately allowing me to catch them?

So that's my 'One that didn't get away' story.

My legs were not happy about riding home later and I still was tender in the knees this morning. I must be getting old!


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

Taz

Second Night.

1) Male, heroin OD, still some strong stuff on the streets and catching users out.
2) Young male intoxicated but didn't want someone to help even though he was in much worse shape than the one the previous evening.
3) Dialysis pt returned to home post treatment.
4) Post ictal with a head lac, no history of epilepsy but may occur with illicit stimulant use.
5) Police cells to check a person who had been stunned but not barbed by a Tazer. Their protocol requires us to examine the pt within a set time limit for the pts safety.
6) SNR - Services Not Required.
7) A middle aged female who believed one of her drinks had been spiked because she was not able to get up the numerous flights of stairs to her apartment. Now we were unable during the history taking to determine which of the drinks consumed over the minimum eight hours she had been out was indeed the 'Mikey Finn' (spiked). With good humour and protecting our pts dignity we assisted her home to bed.
8) Elderly person with vomiting and diarrhoea.
9) Cardiac Arrest. Not a good outcome and way too young. But from the view of ambulance or me, two Qualified Officers, ICP on the tube and airway, me a P1 on the IV (very pleased with the 14G I got there), Drugs and Defib with the two Padawans doing compressions and setting up for extraction, etc.

But the shift had not finished yet.

I think it's a good story so I'm going to give it a post of it's own.

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

Taz

First Night.

1) Female syncope, Confirmed LOC, <1yrs diagnosis of leaking tricuspid valve.
2) Psych transport back to facility they had absconded from, well out of our area.
3) Male & Female with glass cuts, caution don't have a lap dance on glass coffee tables.
4) Female ? intoxicated ignoring B/f and not opening door. Locksmith on scene opening door as pts condition was at that stage unknown. I had a stern talk to her.
5) Male seen in backyard by neighbours not moving, poly-pharmacy OD.
6) Intoxicated female with cut on nose, from falling over.
7) Male who waited too long to call with right weakness, confirmed CVA, outside local protocol for thrombosis.
8) Young drunk fella who needed someone to look after him. He was a very nice person so it was our pleasure too.
9) Middle aged male with lower back pain and very drunk.
10) Transport two dialysis pts to treatment.

While making up the bed we were approached by a person wondering if we knew the crew that did a particular job and were pleased to say that it was us.

This family member was able to give us a detailed report about our pts current status and injuries as well as their remarkable recovery from extremely traumatic injuries.

We were very touched by the whole job and intend to visit the pt next week to give our support and best wishes.

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

Taz

Welcome back to work!

And wasn't it a big re-entry into the role of an active Ambulance Officer.

Big trauma straight up.

My new padawan and I had not even started to get to know stuff about each other.

The rest of the first day remained busy with ten jobs for the twelve and a half hour day.

Nothing quite so robust today about seven jobs, 25 min of break time over thirteen and a half hours!

There is a bit of tension with on-road crews over this new twelve hour shift and the two thirty minute breaks that we just never seem to be able to take!

But we're on for Friday and Saturday night shifts so lets see what fun we can get into!!!!


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

Taz

Another unpaid advertisment.

For Australian residents only.

http://www.partslocator.com.au/

Tracy's car is a thirteen year old Deewoo and can be hard to get parts for.
The Parts Locator is a free site to use to locate within your state or from anywhere in Australia new or dismantled supplies.

I have used it several times and find the response from suppliers to be in my inbox very quickly. The prices are fair and the freight ususally very quick.

If you have an older car and find getting parts difficult then please give them a try.

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

Taz

In the interest of fairness.

I love my wife's cooking

I have never turned my nose up at anything served to me.

She has even commented that the little noises I was making whilst eating a Lamb Roast once were similar to some others I have made at other times (the rest of this has been censored by my better judgement).

But not everything turns out as we would like!

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

Taz

Back in the saddle.

Well for a Saturday night in Sydney it was really a very pleasant shift.

About ten jobs all told for our vehicle. Nothing that challenged my abilities.
No Vomit, Wee or Poo.
Very little Blood. Spinal precautions on one patient only. There were psychiatric patients (full moon was out) but they were in the most very well behaved.

So it really was a good shift to get back into the swing of things.

The body was what did surprise me.

My dogs were barking real bad by the end (my feet).
My knees ached, my back ached and while the total hours worked was now less that the night shifts before I went on holiday (twelve hour day/night) there was a psychological effect.

We are allocated two 30 minute meal breaks during a shift between set times, but if you don't get to take them they disappear and you get a single $ penalty for each missed break.

We didn't get to take our breaks and while the night shift is two hours shorter I think the psychological effect made them seem longer.

I wonder if the new day shifts that are now two hours longer are going to produce a similar effect? This is not going to manage staff fatigue like it was sold to the Industrial Relations Commission.

Anyway it was good to be back, to have wax in the moustach and gel in the hair and a pair of polished boots. I made Tracy a cuppa when I got home and collapsed into bed beside her not getting up until 1700hrs.

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

Taz

Overtime!

Got the call and it's at my own station!

So Tracy and I caught the midday showing of Wolverine.

Time lines were a bit out compared to the first X-Men movie but still a good viewing experience on the big screen.

And if you haven't seen it yet a tip, Don't leave when the credits start!
There's still one final scene at the very end!!!

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

Taz

DAY TWENTY ONE OF THE HOLIDAYS!

And their over.

I think I would have liked to do a road trip but Tracy had so much to catch up with in the scrapbook world it just didn't happen but with this new rostering of five days off we might do one later.

And how's this for a way to finish holidays.

Saturday is the start of our working week and as of tomorrow I am on four of my five rostered days off.

I don't go back until Wednesday!

So I'm down for O/t?
I don't know if there is much around because I've been very good and not called into work to gossip with the guys!


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

Taz

What didn't I do on holidays?

Many things I guess but for this post I mean shave!



Yep after twenty one days this is as good as it gets.
I seem to be the only man in my family who can't do face hair.
You don't even want to know how long it takes to get the moustach to where I like it!


So these are the tools of destruction

The pink thing is a trimmer to hack away at it before I use the blade.

The shaveing mug (now with those little bits of soap you can't use) is my original 'Old Spice' from when I first started to shave as a young man. While I didn't have much, because I was in an Army Reserve Band I had to be clean shaven.



Tracy was distressed when she saw this photo, so it's not poor housekeeping but just my beard!

But it looked a lot more on the face?

Didn't it????

There it is, never mind about the head hair I mean the naked chin!

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

Taz

Retirement of a Gentleman Boss.

I received my copy of the Tassie Ambo Volunteers monthly newsletter today and the main article is about the retirement of Mr Grant Lennox the CEO of the Tasmanian Ambulance Service.

I first meet Grant sometime during my induction to the ambulance service as a volunteer in 2002. While I never was a paid employee I found Grant to be a much respected and liked boss and this extended to salaried and volunteer staff of the service.

A link to the Volunteer Ambulance Officers Association of Tasmania (VAOAT) is back up the top of the blog and you can find the 'First Response' copy there.

From NSW goodbye and thank you Mr Lennox.


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

Taz

Day Twenty of the holidays.

The penultimate, second last, their nearly over.

So some God Botherer's darkened our door stoop this morning so I bravely hid in bed.

Tracy and I went for another ride but stopped at the Brighton Kiosk and had a nice but large lunch on the way back as sort of a treat for all the hard work she has been putting in to this exercise.

She has had lots of work to do on-line as AmboWife the digital scrapbook designer also so I let her get on with that while I had a Nana nap on the couch in the arvo.

With nothing of worth on the giggle box tonight we both were planted in front of our computers with just the radio playing in the background, quite pleasant really.

I got back into the on-line Drug Dose Calculation Course that I had mentioned and started the final assessment foolishly at 22:00. It took me two hours to complete with a very nice 99/100 score.

We've figured out that the vagrant cat belongs to the new neighbours next door and must be inside during the day and let out when they get home.

But enough, I'm off to bed to prepare for my last official day of holidays.

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

Taz

Day Nineteen of the holidays.

More sleeping (how unusual).

Tracy went out and got the Mothers Day presents for this Sunday.

I had logged on to and commenced the on line education package for Drugs and Pharmacology through the ASNSW Education Centre.

We filled in the Mothers Day cards and addressed the envelops and went for a ride, I had to stop by work to complete some paperwork and then we went and did some laps of Centennial Park before returning home.

We have a furry growth appearing at the front of the house at night time!

A cat!

Don't know where it's coming from, this neighbourhood is full of dogs but it seems to have taken a liking to us. We can't step out of the front door without it appearing out of thin air?

We're not in the market to be annexed by a cat and while we're not chasing it away we are ignoring it.


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

Taz

The blog will get better soon!

Officially I only have twenty one days holiday each break but with my placement on the roster I have an extra four days off.

So later next week I will be back in the thick of it, with luck.

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

Taz

Day Eighteen of the holidays.

Ok, so what did I do today???

Oh, that's right,

08:00 Got up, had some breakfast and then went back to bed.
11:30 Garbage truck woke me up so I got up again and buggered around.

The house owners Fix-it guy rang to check if we'd be home to come and have a look at the busted rear fly screen and we waited for him to arrive.

14:20 After his departure with measurements taken of the door we went on a ride out along side the canals out to the Olympic site about 32km or 1hr 50 ride time.

Had dinner and then I departed to do one of the Traffic Offender presentations at a local PCYC.

Tracy recorded NCIS for me, I'll watch that tomorrow, and I investigated some of the different programs on offer on the digital channels before bed.

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

Taz

Day Seventeen of the holidays.

I needed to conduct some business in the city today and intended to ride in.
Tracy wasn't interested in riding during weekday traffic so I went alone.

I did call into work but I had to collect some paperwork from my mail to take with me, so there was a legitimate reason.

I did call back into work after completing my business but I had to put some of it in the internal mail, so that's legitimate as well!

Anyway it allowed Tracy to do stuff in the the Digital Scrap Book world were there is some sort of crisis going on with one of the overseas designers????

A quick talk with the only crew I saw about the new twelve hour day shifts only reinforced the impression I already have that they are going to increase our fatigue???


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

Taz

Day Sixteen of the holidays.

10:00 or maybe 11:00 got out of bed, the weather looked ok so we went for a ride.

23km to La Perouse and back.

12:30 or so rang my father to wish him a Happy Birthday.

Took up position on the couch to watch the motor racing.

Had dinner and took up position on the couch to watch TV.

23:20 bore you with this drivel!





I received this in an email, forwarded it to a few and then thought it may tickle you my dear friend the reader.



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


Taz

Day Fifteen of holidays.

Well Tracy had gone out to the shops or somewhere when I got up (I do like my bed and sleeping, my peers would have you believe otherwise!).
Now there is V8 Supercar racing from Winton race track in Victoria on today and tomorrow with the broadcasts starting around 14:00hrs so we might have to get up a bit earlier tomorrow to get in our ride.

Started to pick up some of the many bits of paper filed on the flat surfaces of my study and completed some financial paper work after the races getting ready for the fast approaching tax time.

Dinner, watch some TV and off to bed.

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

Taz

Day Fourteen of the holidays.

Ok, so the watch has come off again so I'm not sure what time it was when I got up.

But when I did I slipped into some clothes and checked the computer and re-introduced myself to an old friend,

The lawn mower.

With all the rain we have had here in Sydney the grass has shot up so I raised the blades and just cropped the top while the wife went around with the shears clipping the bits I couldn't.

Around 14:00 we got on the bikes and started our return to fitness campaign.

A nice leisurely ride south past Brighton-le-Sands with a round trip time of two hours and thirty six klm travelled or a bit over twenty two miles.

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

Taz