What did I do on my birthday.

Seems to be a big question on anybodies lips when they find out it's yours.

I had a surprise birthday for my 30th, but I knew about it. I didn't spoil it for the wife (first one) who had organised it and acted very surprised with the whole event.

I got a low key event for my formal coming of age at 18

I think that 16 was the big one for me, don't know why.

So after I had a sleep after the wasted night shift, I woke to find Ambowife had returned home so I set too opening my present

Read the card first!

Then get into the box!


Try on the present, yes just a pair of slippers



Blow out the candle and don't forget to lick the chocolate of the bottom of the novelty candle.


My special day in pictures.



See you at the big One.

Taz

It'll be my birthday when I finish.

So unlike most who might of wished for a slow night so that they could rest ready to celebrate during the day.
My latest birthday is less important than the life I may save so you as a regular reader should know what I was wishing for.

Didn't happen!

86F - Rehab hospital to ED with rapid AF.

26F - A piss poor OD attempt but needs help.

86M - Left arm and chest wall pain.

31M - Air Ambulance to a small speciality hospital for surgery.

And that was it.

I must make note of the night crews and on-coming day crews who found out by a social networking site that it was indeed my birthday and over the intercom sang me Happy Birthday from our vehicle plant room while I was finishing off our paperwork in the Muster Room.
Thank you guys, an extra special one next year with my half tonne milestone and there will be a party.

See you at the big One.

Taz

Cool nights and little work.

90F - Prosthetic hip and this is the seventh dislocation.

84F - C/o thigh pain but there seem to be a few social issues involved.

44M - Got punched in the mouth and was making a statement at the Cop Shop and they called us to have a look. Nothing much in it, he'll complete his statement and make his own way to the ED for a clean out and stitch.

42M - Vomiting, interstate visitors without much resources in a motel so I gave him some anti emetics and transport for fluids and maybe some tests.

79F - Discharge from hospital post a pacemaker to the air ambulance base for a flight home.



See you at the big One.

Taz

Sunday slowed a little.

There was a lull in the early afternoon that was the problem.

35M - From a small to large hospital for some surgery.

84F - Syncope in church. Has done it before offered a trip to hospital and she accepted, kept the husband happy.

89F - Nursing home thought it was a stroke, I'm going for the UTI as there was no weakness, no Hx of TIA's and there was mild fever.

26F - Another biking accident, clipped the rear wheel of her hubbies bike and stacked it. There was a 'Fun Run' on so there were St Johnnies everywhere and god bless them she was splinted and packaged ready for us to collect with her ?# R radius.

Update on 48M with #clavicle from yesterday, saw him this morning and was waiting surgical review with imaging showing a nasty # of the scapula also but no neuro symptoms or concussion all from wearing a helmet.

30F - # R Wrist playing soccer.

MVA - UTL, even reading the notes it sounded like a hoax.

33M - IP and didn't quite make it to the train station or the taxi rank. Very nice and polite regular upstanding member of the general public who has just got caught out by the booze.

58M - 3/52 flu like symptoms, LMO gave a course of AB's with moderate success but return of major symptoms temp of 40 C (104.0F) 2/7 ago. Med Hx, type 2 diabetes, 1 x bypass and mitral valve replacement 3 yrs ago. Has had uncontrolled hiccups for the last 8/24! I'd like to follow up on this one.

And that was it.



See you at the big One.

Taz

Now it's work coming out the Whazoo!

Change in the roster first I'm teamed up again with my partner from the last shift for three weeks.

74M - One of our regular dialysis pts. We're late and he's going to be pissed off. We get called of for a higher priority just short of his address.
25M - Fell off his skateboard and cut his head open. Bleeding had stopped and in looked like a simple scalp wound that he didn't want to got to hospital for. He's decision.
38M - Agrivated a known back issue five weeks ago. Has been doing everything he can with specialist appointments, physio but it's now included a numb foot so off we go with the only analgesia I'll give for the whole shift, not for the lack of trying.
45M - Been bite by a human. Called off for a higher priority.
Unconscious M at the train station. As we arrived on the platform he was pointed out to us getting on the train. Not so unconscious.
81M - Assist off the floor with no injuries. Can stay at home.
84F - Sat down on a wall to rest a little on her daily walk and enjoy the warm weather we're having and somebody called an ambulance for her. She didn't want one! She didn't need one!
6M - At home with an epistaxis. As we pulled up out the front they decided that an ambulance was not needed.
49M - Unconscious in a park. IP woke up with gentle urging from me and we gave him a lift to his hostel.
81M - Hospital to Hospital transfer with foot cellulitis.
84F from a hostel to a hospital with bilateral lower leg cellulitis.
48M - A fellow cyclist who was involved in a multi-bike stack. # clavicle.

My partner was starting to wilt with three hours to go.

See you at the big One.

Taz

And the next shift no emergency work.

61M - Very hot cafe, uncomfortably hot, eating, describes a faint, witnesses describe a seizure but pt isn't post ictal with GCS = 15, luckily from him I diagnose a cafe syncope rather than it being an epileptic seizure but we transport for obs and I explain to my junior partner what the difference is.

47M - Been drinking all day and decides to driver around and see the Ex. Cops become involved and he shoots off his mouth and talks about suicide and we all have to go to hospital because you can't take back those words once said. Depressed drunk with a suicidal Hx at a hospital that's not coping with the number of ordinary sick people already.

28F - Drank a little too much which opens up a dark place that she normally hides and she picks up a knife and opens up a goodly portion of her anterior forearm. Just down to the adipose no vascular injury or tendon but needs surgical closure and some counselling.

And that was the night.

I have one of my Traffic Offender Intervention Program presentations to do on the days off.

I've also worked out a way to bind my patient question books with wire combs without having to incur the expense of re-tooling and intend to produce some of those as the national conference of Paramedics Australasia is being held in Sydney in October and and as my book is still their shops highest selling text book (what a wanker) I better have some on hand.

There are also episodes of Combat Hospital, Dr Who, Torchwood, Eureka and several other TV show to watch online during the days off.


See you at the big One.

Taz

Two Emergency Jobs from Nine!

So my partner for the next two shifts only, doesn't show and that leaves me single and shafted away to another sector and station for the shift.
No biggy I know the area and my new partner's a cool dude and we worked well.

36F - C/o URQ abdo pain to good Samaritans in a hotel. Claims 20 x vomits and diarrhoea. Recent release from a correctional facility (still in prison greens) admits to meth use today. You know when someone's trying to convince you that their crazy and do odd stuff but check every now and then to make sure your watching? She didn't. After discussing with me the angels I see and the darkness I live near and Satan moving around the shore she was too busy talking to a spot 5 foot in front and 2 foot off the ground to notice any of us.

81F - A happy dementia pt lives at home with Hubby. Now for some reason or maybe none really she took her nightly tablets and then took his! There was nothing nasty in his meds and it was only one tablet, after a quick consultation with Poison Information I was happy for them to stay in the comfort of their own home.

53M - From a group home being discharged from hospital after a fall.
88F - Discharge back to her nursing home after treatment for skin tears.

46M - Conscious VT! His only medical condition is this busted heart, CABgs x 4, stents x 3, tricuspid and mitral valve surgery and now a random arrhythmia.

29M - Confirmed LOC by his words 'I woke up wondering how I got in the gutter' from a brawl but people are allowed after displaying competency and capacity (to receive, believe, retain and explain) to make bad decisions and while no obvious signs of injury were there that's why they need the imaging and neuro obs.

28M - A different brawl, right sided minor facial injuries.

28M - Same brawl as above, right sided minor facial injuries and concussion symptoms.

74M - Type one diabetic who's OD'd (accidentally) on his insulin, after I'd pumped enough sugar into him to make a dentist's convention proud & we got his GCS back I explained that while being at home with his lovely wife to watch over him would normally be acceptable after a simple hypo his was nothing like simple and would need to come to hospital to be observed and managed. Our range of treatment for diabetic emergencies is under 4.0mmol/L or over 17.0mmol/L, he was 1.5 on our arrival and the best I got was 2.2.
And that made him my second true emergency for the shift.



See you at the big One.

Taz