Average Age 72 and a half.

88M - Assisted Living Facility, had a fall during the night and sustained a minor scalp wound. Staff had done an excellent job of cleaning and dressing but the family wanted an Ambulance to come and have a look. So we did and complimented the wound care and left the poor blighter to have his breakfast.
88F - Getting aggressive with staff at her Assisted Living Facility. In particular those of a darker skin tone as well as regressing to her native tongue, Russian. No diagnosis of Dementia and with me a uniformed adult male was pleasant. Not febrile but the was the odour of a UTI that was proven by the hospital.
75M - Fell forward on an escalator and got a few good scalp lacs that looked like he'd been clawed by a lion. Needed stitches.
82F - LLQ Abdo pain that her LMO wanted investigated.
72F - Who had a syncope after a very minor MVC and the responder thought should go to hospital. She was on her way home with fresh meat from the butcher and she is the sole carer for her invalid husband. There were no injuries, she just fainted. We dropped her off at home which was nearby.
34M - Smuggled grog into a men's shelter and got sh*tfaced! Dumb move, they have now black banned him and as they can't turf him out onto the road we have to collect him and take him to hospital to sober up.
69M - Fell backwards on an escalator and apart from chewing holes in the seat of his pants didn't injure him but he wanted transport to have his Parkinson's checked. At 7PM he went straight to the waiting room for a long wait.

I've been asked why I call some of my partners Padawan's.
As everyone would know Padawan is Jedi for learner.
I don't like the way some people say 'Probie' and as I mentor the trainees I get in the light and the force they have to be Padawan's.

Scary in my world?


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


Taz

New Roster, New Partner

A Padawan in fact, not brand new I'll be his second mentor but older than some of my recent partners and we remember more common things like music or TV shows.

79M - Regular Dialysis Pt.
83M - Tumble at home and a few skin tears. I can dress them up OK but they will need changing and observation during the healing process. He already has a Community Home Nurse call in for another issue so I give them a call to discuss it and have his nurse there within 10 minutes (she was in the area). Reviews my work, is fine and helpful with accepting to take over the job and allows all of us Health Professionals to leave the pt at home and out of the hospital ED.
28F - Near Faint. Lots of stress from family issues, working long hours, not eating regularly, has run herself down. We have a good ol' chat about it and opt for a 'fix what can be fixed' self manage style starting with her having the rest of the day off.
56F - Found unresponsive in a shopping centre toilet, OD I thinks on the way in as most of us would and it was just not the opiate one I thought it would be. Alcohol (BAL 0.441 I'm told later) and possible Benzo's. Transport her and she didn't leave the ED for over 24hrs.
73M - Has had his larynx removed and has woken to find the plastic bit off the stoma gone. He believes he's inhaled it. Needs an x-ray.
22F - Tourist who went swimming at a beach and ended up in some difficulty and swallowed a a goodly amount. Attended the Life Guards on duty and had some O2 but was still also feeling SOB. Transport for observation.
84F - Syncope with chest pain of mild exertion,,,,, a cardiac review of this young lady might be in order as there is no Hx. 

And that's how we spent our first day of the new roster together.

See you at the big One and Be Excellent to Each Other

Taz

Continuing on with Anonymous.

Anon's reply,

woah settle down, I didnt come on here to critise any one, mearly was commenting on the sarcastic mention that a fellow officer was moving to a rural station "where they do as many cases in a month as we do in a shift." by their own choice.

I didn't say that any patient was more or less important, just that we do still actually work out here.

And I acknowledge that and apologise to you if my post blasted you Anon.

I've had a few personal attacks and can be a little quick to jump to defensive prose and the written word can so often not truly represent the intent of the words even with good intent and punctuation.

Take this for instance,

My blog is not a Pissing Contest!
- It wouldn't be much of a contest anyway.
My blog is where I choose to write about my day and the interesting characters I meet!
- You regularly deride your 'interesting characters' for being soft/drunk etc. Also, the listing of every job you attend is boring, bombarding the reader with everything you've done in a day doesn't make compelling blogging. You could take a leaf out of Mr. Reynolds blog and focus on one emotional or interesting job and draw your reader in, or you could continue listing all the shit you attend in Sydney and driving away potential readers who ant to connect emotionally to a well written blog, not a list.
My blog is open for you to read BUT you don't have to!
- I won't continue to read this blog, as the owner seems to be a petulant little 3 year old who can't handle differing opinions to his own.
My Blog is an open constructive and positive environment!
-Your blog is public domain, and the public are not required to be positive about your daily list.
DON'T come here and hide behind Anonymous, put your name on it!
- as the owner of this blog you may set commenting so that only google accounts may comment. If you allow anonymity in your comments don't act like a bitch when that is exactly what you get.
"Don't Criticise me!"
- If you put yourself out in the public domain you cannot expect that you can say whatever you want and not receive any kind of criticism. More evidence of the petulant 3 year old you really are.

Finally: Job Volume is not > Job Quality. Sure you attend a lot of jobs, but how many of them require you to use your brain? Or adapt to a situation where you have major trauma and you are hours away from a hospital that has the facilities you need. Your job in the city is monotonous and boring. Just like your blog.

Ticked someone off and that's ok, they're allowed to be ticked off, it's a free world.


See you at the Big One and Be Excellent to each other!

Taz

It's not a contest Anonymous

 Anonymous wrote the following,

So you sign off see you at the big one, just wondering when that was? My last shift on a rural station, industrial accident crane fell on a pt, High speed MVA, and gun shot wound to chest. Don’t judge us based on the number of jobs we do, we just don’t do the sh*t in between.

In my Ambulance Service it is a common farewell to fellow officers indicating that we generally operate as individual units and the only time we come together is at a major incident.

Great work Anon, but you sound a little tense by your choice of words and syntax, aggressive even.
It should be very clear to a Paramedic that much of my work is Low Acuity, to my patient it is rightly or wrongly important, even urgent.

So lets get the rules straight,

My blog is not a Pissing Contest!
My blog is where I choose to write about my day and the interesting characters I meet!
My blog is open for you to read BUT you don't have to!
My Blog is an open constructive and positive environment!
DON'T come here and hide behind Anonymous, put your name on it!
Write your own Blog and send me a link, I'll follow it!
Don't Criticise me!

As Bill S Preston Esq and Ted "Theodore" Logan are apt to say

Be Excellent to each other! (Bill & Ted's Excellent Journey)


See you at the big One.

Taz

Last night of the Roster.

And I'm feeling a little of my age.
Last weekend we travelled to see a friend and attend her twins baby shower.
The men went to a nearby lake with the father and his brother with his ski boat and had a BBQ and rides on the ski biscuits. I've not done this before and after they couldn't make me fall out I retired undefeated and unknowingly very tended. My lower joints are stiff and sore, walking is a chore, strangely riding the bike isn't but that doesn't help when I'm at work.
Simple analgesia and hang in there until my next days off and rest up good.

30F - IP, emotional trigger leading to extreme intoxication.
39M - We are to call him Jesus of Nazareth! Need I go further.
16day old M - Hospital to hospital transfer for some surgery.
64M - Conjunctivitis, has seen his LMO but in his current drunken state believes the meds he started today should be doing more. He decided after a lengthy consultation that we were correct and he should stay at home.
Assist another crew.
32M - On the nod post opiate use and denies even though I found the whole paraphernalia. Needs to be watched.
31M - Same as his mate above.
18F - IP, claims she watched her drink be spiked and still drank it! Yep these are our future movers and shakers, the leaders of our community and country. God help us. BAL = 0.150
49M - Fever and sore throat, he decided to stay at home too.
21M - Alleged assault, yeah right and for no reason too? He did not wait in the hospital but left straight away.


See you at the big One. Taz

Partner still sick.

So worked with an officer who will be leaving the city for a rural posting (her choice) in a month where they do as many cases in a month as we do in a shift.
01F - Single responded to this to assess and report on transport. Has had a fall each of the last two days with an ED presentation and cleared/discharge. Woke this AM with a vomit followed by a significant epistaxis now responding normally. Tx in the family car (normal environment and they have a capsule) crew followed.
36M - Slipped in the rain going down on one knee. Very painful and doesn't look like a patella injury such as dislocation turns out it was #.
26F - Back pain with a very significant Hx including surgery.
74M - Vertigo and nausea, provisional diagnosis an inner ear disturbance that had also been suggested by his LMO and he was waiting a review by an ENT specialist. I can only help with the nausea the ED will do the rest.
75F - Psychiatric transfer from a little hospital to a bigger one.
28M - A psychotic, paranoid with extreme religious overtones.
33F - Syncope.

See you at the big One. Taz

Partner was sick.

But I knew about this sick day.
So I worked with another peer from station whom I've had the pleasure of knowing since she came along on the induction ride-a-long shift many years ago and the first thing she got was a Cardiac Arrest in a public place.
Today,
Assist another crew to lift a pt up off the ground.
??M - Unconscious and dying! Talked to a couple of dudes walking away who said the pt got better and left.
69F - Slip in the rain and # Humerus.
53M - First ever seizure. Denies all probable triggers.
??M - Told someone at the Pub he had chest pain and they called us. He met us on the street having a smoke with a beer in his hand saying it was just reflux from drinking too quick and cancelled us.
25M - Turned up to detox with a BAL of 0.331 they were worried by his drowsiness and called us, he just got up and left which I was amazed he could!
19M - OD on Heroin who swore black and blue that he was only asleep when we chucked in the oral airway and bagged him up or jabbed him with some Naloxone and waited ten minutes for him to come up. He left the scene also.
84M - Septic somewhere! 


See you at the big One.

Taz