The sex was more even today.

Yes I am a big child at times and I do laugh at fart jokes etc.
The title should of course read the sexes were more even today but what the heck..

30M - Sad really, I talked quite a bit to his parents, currently suffering a severe paranoid delusion for the first time and from unknown causes. Hx of depression and they are seeking treatment privately and so are unknown to the local mental health system. Today he has kicked out the first floor wind jumped out, got caught by the roof gutter on the rib section similar to where a chest tube would be inserted but looking like it was done with a chainsaw. Come off the gutter landed on a fence and then slid of landing on the ground before running into the neighbours place. To the best of our knowledge no major damage other than the chest and that didn't penetrate but was a massive wound.
33M - Work incident, slipped and drove the whole weight of his body down on one knee that caught the edge of a piece of metal plate on the medial aspect of the joint. Large three sided penetrating wound but he could bear weight and move it some what.
64M - Sweating like a leaking tap, pale, nausea and vomiting, witnessed syncope, inconclusive ECG but treated as cardiac of course.
56M - Chronic Hx of nausea
64F - A very nasty bed sore that is not responding to home care nursing visits.
3/12F - Opiate baby, foster Mum says that while she has been fully weaned off it she has apnea events and today she felt the need to provide rescue breaths and chest compress ions. One brave and emotionally strong lady that.
69F - With Catheter issues.
30M - Who chose a public park bench to sleep is off.
Really the Cops and I don't mind but Mr & Mrs Average walking past you will call us to come help you. Yes we know you don't want any help but they who pay our wages have this expectation that you do.
He decided to move to the grass next to the napping office worker.

Be Excellent to Each Other and See You at the Big One!


 Taz

One Male Patient All Day!

81F - LMO had seen her a few days ago and written a letter to the A&E then for her admission then but they had not acted on it until her birthday had been celebrated, yesterday. A good family that don't want her assessed for assisted care placement but just to get better and then come home to them. Not that common in Australia.
74F - I can't begin to describe how cluttered this tiny backyard was other than to say we were in danger just trying to walk in to her. She's tripped (Dah!) and landed on some pot plants and can't get up. That was it in the end, she just couldn't get herself up so with a shovel and sweat I cleared a path and also around her (thought my landscaping days were behind me) and then helped to her feet. She still wanted to go to hospital so we took her.
48M - The bottle has it's hooks into him and he was doing well but had a moment and we're transporting him to a detox from a clinic.
37F - with Law enforcement to whom she stated that it was difficult to breath. It is also 30hr + post her last heroin hit and really she is doing the withdrawal well so far. There's nothing I can do and they have an RN at remand who can give Valium so that was my recommendation.
68F - prolonged near syncope episode for like 20 minutes, BP remained very low (never better than 95 sys) denies pain of any kind and the ECG is very good unless you looked at it tilted slightly and maybe , just maybe there could have been a small square of ST elevation. Asymptomatic when we arrived and while with us. Troponin levels indicated otherwise and she went straight to the Cath Lab.
96F - Doesn't fall but has three times in the last 24hrs. No injury but to have this sudden drop of independence it needs to be followed up in a safe environment with 24hr care.

Be Excellent to Each Other and See You at the Big One!

 Taz

Only one night shift this week.

Got some personal stuff to attend to.
Ambowife and I are taking a train trip with our bikes to the country to attend a double christening of a pair of  8 mth old boys. Close friends from the first year I was here from interstate and important people to us, so a shift swap was done leaving just this for the one shift.

38M - Yep you have been punched in the face and I guess there is a bloody good chance that orbit (eye socket) is fractured, better come with us for an x-ray.
42M/F - Drunk, wounded by a similar, no idea about 'indoor voice' or stop flapping your lips will I'm trying to look at the size of the wound. It needed stitches anyway.
34F - Fainted twice. Everything came back fine so we discussed it an agreed that it must have been the alignment of the stars that caused it and she went home.
41M - Cyclist without a helmet (yes he did cop a serve from me) who face planted over the handle bars. Concussion, transported for observation.
26M - Sick, like really sick. Febrile, nausea and vomiting, been going on for more than four days, weight loss because of the nausea and decreased appetite. Not a well lad at all.
39F - who claimed to have been randomly drugged and released.
86F - Regular dialysis pt.  

Be Excellent to Each Other and See You at the Big One!

 Taz

One patient only not born in December.

Funny how those things stand out or like the pt's birthday is the same as yours!

44M - Friends were jumping straight to a stroke for a very localised paralysis but I'm going a very bad nerve pinch.
86F - Sounds like she had doubled up on her anti-hypertensives and with the expected reaction, fainted. Poor outcome as it was in the bathroom and apart from the significant hole in her scalp there was later found the occcipital # and a subarachnoid and subdural bleeding.
77M - Only one lung after CA saw it removed 11yrs ago and looks like a mild chest infection but for him that's worse.
84M - Possible bowel obstruction.
3F - Head butt with a set of open draws drew a little blood but enough to have Mummy calling us. All good smiley faces draw on her hands and left in Mums care.
93M - Wife says he's drowsy and wants him seen, never looked it all the time with us or when we say them several hrs later.
88F - Knee injury post mechanical fall and high care dementia pt who has reverted to her native tongue but no obvious injury transported for imaging.
40F With a rare angio-oedema condition not associated with anaphylaxis.
56F - MS sufferer who says in full and complete sentences that she has shortness of breath. Fully bed ridden, bariatric pt nearly by her girth, it's right on shift change and we're two sectors away from home and the local crew just got stood down after sign-on but when asked they are needed for cover as the sector is short staffed. We got the job done, it strained our bodies and minds and we knocked off three hours late.

That's the way of things some days.

Be Excellent to Each Other and See You at the Big One!

 Taz

So many jobs and we missed the Big One.

Well the big one for this week anyway.
A construction site had an incident and we were about a km away and got diverted onto something lame.
What we did get during the shift was;

37M - Post Ictal, recovered well not needing hospital.
28M - IVDU with an infected injection site on his hand that has got infected and is one of the nastiest looking cellulitic limbs I've seen in a long time. Transfer to the hand hospital for specialist treatment and he left shortly there after to find a hit.
Construction site fire&*^%$%*&^%$$$$
46F - Abdo pain but there are a host of mental health issues happening as well.
32M - Came home pissed and their relationship is rocky and he shot his mouth off (remembering what they think are throw away remarks are phrases that we use to transport for Mental Health assessment), anywho after a nice chat I was happy not to transport him and damn sure he'll think before shooting his trap off next time.
45M - Dislocated shoulder, called off that for,
93F - Who was tired, the husband has been ill for several days and she has been having little sleep, he's gone to hospital this morning and her careers wanted some one to confirm that she was just tired. Who hires these people?
90F - Dementia sufferer who had said she was unwell to her son but denied it to me. All other obs were really good so between us we decided to leave her at home.
47M - Transfer from a small hospital (more like a clinic really) to a large hospital with a presentation of chest pain now resolved post nitrates etc.
61M - Keeps taking his BP every 5 min and it's getting higher. Never did get an answer as to why he was taking it, denied any symptoms appears to have a morbid fixation about it. Of course it wasn't high when I took it after talking calmly for 15 minutes but there was no talking him out of transport.
45M - Transfer to a Detox facility.
Paediatric transfer, diverted.
Unknown problem, diverted.
20F - abdo pain and spontaneous bleeding 3/52 post a planned termination.

Be Excellent to Each Other and See You at the Big One!

 Taz

Keeping the future safe.

So those that visit regularly know that I bleat on about a couple of driver re-education courses that I participate in. Well one is for adults who have done wrong and been caught while the other is run by Rotary and is directed at High School students in the year that they are going to either get their learners or provisional licenses.

An interesting aside to this was, several month ago at a rural township where I was presenting the adult session one of the participants asked a few extra questions about the course and any version suitable for schools. I told him what I knew and directed him to Rotary and our Media Dept.

This kind of community education isn't core business and is not well supported by the Service. It's not discouraged either and the value to community is acknowledged but not much. If you want to do it, do it on your own time and I do.

Anywho this gent is directed back to me asking if I'll consider coming back to the town (5hr drive inland) and present to the year 10 and 11 students at the local High School and while he doesn't have any school aged children his business will cover my expenses!

Ambowife and I went there a week or so ago now.
Three lessons per day approx 180 young adults in total.
Impromptu lessons with the Teachers in the staff room at breaks about drugs, alcohol, driving & behaviour.
A counselling session with three young ladies who had known someone in a recent fatal car crash and with whom I had touched a very raw nerve but they sort me out to sit down and discuss it and when we all left that room the boxes of tissues stayed behind and they seemed to walk a little straighter and smiled more.

I couldn't tell you if he has paid me, I haven't looked and don't care.
I've been paid in full by the way we and our message were received.

We hoping to go back next year.  


Be Excellent to Each Other and See You at the Big One!

 Taz

Don't have a niffy title for this post.

77F - One of the nastiest skin tears I have ever seen the whole elbow basically.
62M - Yes he has a cardiac Hx but he is also a pest caller who has just returned to the area, Chest pain for the fourth transport in 24hrs.
??F - Seen by good Samaritan drunk in company of drunk males and holding her leg. Yes she was and they were also but her leg was not sore. We left them, all adults to party.
72M - Requesting Detox.
26M - British backpacker in Australia day one and already being carted to hospital pissed and making a public nuisance of himself.
50F - Heroin OD but not down enough to Narcan and to late to hope she'll walk it off so we had to Tx.
24M - Irish backpacker pissed, left by his mates and a tad angry about it. Tripped and scuffed his head.
88M - Increasing generalised mobility issues that he should of had resolved before discharging himself from hospital and then we wouldn't be carrying him out and back to hospital.

Be Excellent to Each Other and See You at the Big One!

 Taz