Hi Ho everyone!

Well the holidays are over.

We've had family visit.
We've travelled a little around the state.
We've enjoyed the peaceful company of each other.
We've seen the last woman I lived with (flatmate) get married.

I'm ready to get back to work.

But I get six shifts and then have to go back to school for re-cert and skills enhancement
Adrenaline for cardiac arrest (yes they have only just extended it from the ICP now to us qualified officers)
Official 12 lead - I've been taking them since we got the defib's capable.
Laryngoscope and Magill forceps for the person stuck on half a cow (choking).
Mechanical Advantage Tourniquet .

And then I get to come back and do some proper work.

See you at the big One.

Taz

Family Stuff.

Well the Old's have decided to abandon the great grey nomad trek around Australia and return home to Tassie for a month or two. To quote my Dad 'Too many tourists up north this time of year'.

They stopped off with us for a few days before flying out today.
We had a few good meals and met up with an Aunty from up the coast.
Got the details on another Aunty who had moved house a year or so ago and hadn't left a forwarding address.

So the wife and I alone.
Bikes in the shop getting it's four month service, new chain, brakes and some crank gears.

We'll be keeping a eye on the floods up north too as we both have family up there. At this stage they're not near the floods but as everyone can tell (even the overseas readers as I'm sure it's made the international news) things can change very quick.

I might start the sleeping in bit I had planned for the holidays.

See you at the big One.

Taz

No high to finish on.

51M - IP and depressed. The address if well known. He is usually good, clean and just a little depressed from the booze. Today he had a carving knife in his hand, he apologised and put it on the table when asked too and he was very chatty. very very chatty. He ended up getting sedated at hospital after he got a little agitated with them.

23F - Post ictal and by her own standards feeling better than she normally would. We chatted and mulled over the options and she stayed with her friends at the event.

37F - Abdo pain. Left sided, I'm going cholecystitis and so did triage.

43M - IP, rung in by a good samaritan. He was a prick and I felt sorry for the nurses.

60M - Dysuria and ? haematuria.

20F - PV haemorrhage ??? home tests indicated positive pregnancy, medical centre didn't and it may have been just a big late menstrual cycle.

88F - No injury but it's the fourth in four days and the hostel management think re-assessment is needed for upgraded care in the nursing home section of the same facility.

And that's me and ambulance work for three weeks.

Yeah sure, right. I won't be tending pts but there is still plenty of books and articles to read as well as online education and our new protocols and pharacologies.



See you at the big One.

Taz

Holidays AGAIN!

Second last shift before another three weeks off.

54F - Her ankle has swollen over night. There has been no trauma and there is no Hx of this previously. I'm going gout or arthritis as this joint was # 19yrs ago.

68F - Severe SOB. The (medical) practise from which we collected her had her on a NEB and had allowed her to recline???? On entering the exam room and hearing this gurgling old steam train I sat her bolt upright and replaced the NEB with a NRB at 15lpm. There was no wheeze, she has no Hx of asthma, she was febrile and with a productive cough. Where the frig does a provisional diagnosis of asthma come from. At least they provided some treatment.

Cardiac arrest? Male lying on the footpath in a busy city with his open bottle of methylated spirits beside him. He told us he wasn't going to share it and to F*%k Off. So without counting it as a life saved we did.

84F - Confirmed syncopy, second one in two months even with her meds reduced. Transport and more tests.

25F - Still not sure about his one. Abdo pain, it may have been a UTI or constipation or the morning after pill she requested 'cause the dinger/franger/condom broke last night!

18M - Relationship problems, I'm thinking about telling him to get some cement to toughen up and he drops the news about the two aborted suicide attempts in the last six months. Come with me Dude and tell me about it.

23F - One of the sad stories, at a youth drop-in centre and had been seen by a crew earlier for narcotic overdose. Left and came back hours later dropping on a xanax OD. No antagonist for that just observation and sleep it off.

29F - Walking up an escalator that was not operating and fell onto her knew??? Score 10/10 pain??? from what??? I think it was the only bad pain she's ever had. Tx for clearing x-ray.

52F - Unwittnessed syncopy of unknown duration. During Tx a single vomit and some diarrheoa arrive, shit (pardon the pun) I think I'm Tx a gastro pt, they're better delt with at home.



See you at the big One.

Taz

NYE.

And for us and our station it wasn't as feral or messy as we thought.
The party goers were well behaved in general as indicated in the media and by the Police.

30M - Scheduled by the Police, aggressive threatening behaviour to the public at a train station. Direct transport to the psych ward.

54F - Back pain? it sounds like renal colic. She had been to the hospital yesterday for the same. Our lowest analgesia took all her pain away.

13M - Down at the beach to watch some of the fireworks and got into a fight with a protagonist he had fought yesterday. He didn't duck quick enough and copped a few to the face. No real injury but we transported due to his age and the environment he was in.

21F - Anxiety attack at a party. Located her B/f and the short of it was she didn't need an ED. She needed to go home to safety but didn't feel safe outside of the ambulance so while my partner wrote up the PHCR I drove them home and she was my NY kiss.

25M - Claimed to have jumped off a high wall but his lack of injury shouted otherwise. Conservative treatment and he was just being a soft co@k.

45M - Everyone claimed the car had run over his torso but seeing he weighed at least a third of the weight of the 4 door sedan involved and it would have rolled if his bulk had passed under the wheel I don't know. Treatment was based on high mechanism and the job was bat called in but there were no injuries consistent with the story.

20M - Claimed a random assault little head lac and ?? a broken finger and he went straight to the waiting room to call his 'boys' to come and keep him company.

88F - Dysphasia and right deficit for an unknown time. Found at 0400 and last seen at 2100 the previous evening.

30F - Vomiting and rigors. No partying for the NYE and she was just sick. Recall the four 'B's of the gut, Burst, Blocked, Bleed or Bug. I'm going with the bug. I discuss home treatment with her and and I give some anti emetic discuss small frequent sips of water or flat lemonade and plain toast along with some simple analgesia/anti pyretic.

And after the shift a few of us went down to the local ED for some post NYE drinks.

See you at the big One.

Taz

The quiet before the storm.

One more sleep before NYE.

But on this night we did,

36M - A mental health pt who felt good and dropped of his meds a few weeks ago and it's all unravelling now. Good for him he knew it and popped into a cop shop and requested help, enter us.

41F - Traumatic cardiac arrest, exsanguination, the heart doesn't pump air. Didn't appear to be any criminal activity it was a burst abscess over an artery.
Nearly seven years since I last did a job as bloody, needed a full uniform change.

23M - Just sleeping in a doorway, as you do and some good Samaritan woke him up and called us. Why? we don't know but in my book if you're that desperate to be the Good Samaritan you should also be prepared to take them home with you and offer them your bed.

23M - Not going out NYE, he decided to hang one on tonight. Could not scratch himself. Double anti emetics and most of a bag of fluids by the time he was poured onto the hospital bed.

See you at the big One.

Taz

Spam Comment.

This was a comment made on the previous post

Hello, My name is Tammy. I am a 52 year old career Paramedic and Paramedic Instructor who was put out on Disability in 2009. I live with my 22 year old son. We live in North Carolina. I write this in the hopes of getting help from kind, more fortunate people. I spent 20 years helping and teaching people as a Paramedic before I had to go out on Disability. I make $933.00 a month on Disability. My rent takes over half that. My electricity takes another $250.00. I make 'too much' to get Medicaid, so I have Medicare which still costs a lot for Doctor's visits and Medications....and I am on a lot. I am not eligible for food stamps because I make 'too much'. I have exhausted every avenue available to me and cannot find help anywhere. My son is desperately searching for a job, which is all we would need to make it, but has had no luck. No one is hiring. He has applied for work everywhere in our city, nearby cities, and online. It's just impossible in this economy to find a job.
I am asking for ANY donations anyone could make. I am trying to get enough money to pay my rent up a few months in advance so that we can eat and get my medications until my son can find employment. Any amount that anyone can make would be a blessing and greatly appreciated!! I am not used to asking strangers for help, and this is very hard for me to do, but I am desperate. I have no family that can help me financially, and the Government will do nothing for me beyond my Disability check...which I worked very hard for all my life.

Please, please help me if you can...any amount will help.

Please mail any donation to:

Tammy Peaden

2509 Charles Blvd., Apt. 72

Greenville, NC

27858

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass this along to anyone that might want to help me...Thank you!

THIS IS A CHAIN LETTER!

After some checking, emails with this name started to appear a few years ago. The base of the story is similar paramedic and such but then it varies and the address changes.

These scams operate on a massive scale, a search engine will have scanned the web for any site that has certain key words and then the email is sent at virtually no cost and they wait to see if anyone is gullible enough t0 contact.
Heaven forbid that you make contact because they will have you marked as a soft touch and just keep hounding you. Never make electronic contact because they'll infect your computer with a Trojan to attempt to steal you information.

Good firewalls, up to date virus protection and safe computer habits will save you



See you at the big One.Taz