Night 1.

We're a crew down throughout this roster so O/t is getting a thrashing just at our station alone.

Not that we needed a third car this night.

42F - Regular caller, lives at a homeless shelter, knows too many AOs, knows too much of the lingo of both the Ambulance Service and the ED. Tonight was Abdo pain with a dose of the scours as my Grandad use to call it or Diarrhoea for us Professional folk. She wasn't interested in staying there and seeing the local clinic in the morning even though she was able to tolerate oral intake.

62M - Regular caller, sometimes known as Geronimo or the fifth Beatle (local jokes). Tonight it was SOB, pain in legs and yes he would like a lift to the hospital. He knows the drill, straight into the waiting room after triage (because he does suffer pneumonia on occasions) and asks for a cup of tea, a sandwich, a blanket and is that the only channel on the TV.

67M - Very. Very bad ascites from chronic liver failure, resp rate of 50 with SpO2 of 87%. Breath sounds did not exist in either of the lower lobes. A very nice gent who was fully accepting of this as a consequence of years of hitting the bottle.

28M - 'Alleged Assault' yes there was a bump on his head, yes his mate said that the other two guys had hit him, yes I didn't have a xray or CT with me to confirm any internal injury but there is a certain amount of experience we gain from all the 'shit' we see and this was a case of male dying swan syndrome. Triage agreed.

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

Taz