Bank Holiday Monday

It's taken me this long to get my thoughts together and get over it. Monday started off well, traffic reduced and plenty of space in the car parks. It's not a holiday here but the schools are off for in service training so it all seems quieter, and of course there is always better stuff on TV. Nice quiet start to the day but I came back from breakfast to find a patient vomiting, not just vomiting but VOMITING!!!! I have never seen so much from one person - and of course he too had had a good breakfast. I no longer do vomit well, nowadays I am very likely to join in with the patient out of sympathy. Any way patient cleaned, sorted and admitted. The rest of the morning was uneventful until a young man appeared who had been dropped off by workmate. Writhing about in agony from his abdomen. Started asking the questions, "where are you sore?" "In my side going into my groin." "Does the pain come in waves or is it constant?" I asked. "I've not been sick" was the reply. "???" I thought I had strayed into a Two Ronnies sketch where you receive the answer to the question you were going to ask. Finally got an answer to my question. "OK, I need a specimen of urine then we will get a doctor to see you." Off he goes to the toilet with his little foil bowl. After 15 minutes I finally get 2 drops from him. I go off to test it telling him to make his way back to his trolley - which he can see as it is right in front of him and at most 50 feet away. I come back and no sign of him so I bang on the toilet door - yeah he'll be out in a minute. I get on with other stuff. 15 minutes later still no sign of him so I open the toilet door, he's lying on the dirty toilet floor - not passed out or anything sinister, just lying on the floor. I get him to walk to his trolley and a doctor goes to see him. Sounds like this guy has Renal Colic, best treatment is intra muscular Diclofenac which is a none steroidal anti inflammatory drug so I go to get it ready. I hear the doctor asking the correct questions - does he have asthma? Yes he does, OK, it is a bad idea to give diclofenac to asthmatics but he says he has had none steroidals before. Doctor decides to give Diclofenac. Just as I am about to prepare it he decides to inform us that while he has had none steroidals before he reacted badly. This is bad so to try to avoid killing this person we give him Morphine. This eases his pain so much that he now wants to wander round the department and go for a smoke. I got him out of the department as quickly as I could as I really wanted to strangle him.
After lunch there was a steady stream of elderly ladies with fractured neck of femurs some patients who thought just because their GP was on holiday ALL GP's were on holiday so came to us with primary care problems, and the usual holiday overdoses, self harmers, abdominal pains and generally unwell people. This kept me and the department very busy until home time - late off again. Next Bank holiday I'm going to have a day off and enjoy the TV or the sunshine like everyone else, whether it's a holiday here or not.

At the gym

Been a bit busy this week and not had time to post. Just been to the gym, need to keep the old bones nice and solid and stop any osteoporosis and try to keep the joints supple and the heart ticking over. Had a good session but why do people insist on walking right by me when I'm doing quad extensions? By the very nature of the exercise my feet are going to come up and hit you. So please move over 6 inches and don't give me a dirty look.
While I'm on the subject, this is to the guy who is an obvious candidate for steroid abuse. It's bad enough that you grunted and groaned like a mad thing when you did your exercises. It's also bad form that you slammed the weights into the stack every time you lifted instead of controlling the machine. But did you really have to move the pin to the very bottom of the stack when you were finished so that anyone coming up behind you would think you were lifting twice the weight you really were? I saw you doing it and I thought "dickhead" then I laughed.

Big white taxi

Something that Paramedics diary wrote here reminded me of a story from one night a few years ago. A young man from one of the outlying towns had been on a night out in another town about 10 miles from home. Had a good night and had spent all his money. Did not fancy a walk home at 2:00 am. So, as his home town had a small hospital with an Accident & Emergency department the bold boy thought it would be a good idea to dial 999 and tell the emergency operator he had taken an overdose. This way he would be taken to his local hospital and could then discharge himself against medical advice - apparently he had heard of it being done and was supposed to be good way of getting home. Unfortunately, what he did not know was that his local A&E department had been downgraded to a minor injury unit and he was brought to us, 16 miles from home. Give the lad his due, he was really giving an Oscar winning performance as what he thought an overdose should look like for the ambulance crew (who were not fooled in the slightest). Kind of spoiled it a bit when he leaped off the trolley when he arrived with us and said he was going home and had only called the ambulance so he could get a lift home. We asked him to sign the DAMA form, which he did, and off he went. Back in 2 minutes asking where he was, when informed that he was in our fair city he demanded that he be taken to his local hospital. It was pointed out that his local hospital could not deal with his presenting problem so he had to be brought to us. Next question was how was he to get home? I'm afraid we laughed a bit and said it was his problem and he now had further to go than when he made the call. He was given the phone and had to call someone to come and get him. I think one of his parents came but he did not let them come and talk to us and I think he told them he had fallen and hurt himself rather than that he was a selfish twat who abused the 999 service.

Nurses Day

A quick post tonight, just realised that it was nurses day yesterday (Monday 12th May), if I had not been reading the blogs I would never have noticed. Far too busy at work to worry about it and did not get a chance to read my e-mail from the RCN until it was all over. I was not the only one, none of my colleagues knew about it. I wondered why the American nurses were making a big thing about getting freebies from their employers - mostly cakes and pens - but hey it's better than nothing and more than I got and they even had a whole week for nurses. All I got was a very busy Monday and the chance to stay on after work for an extra hour as I could not get away on time. Ah well, maybe next year (hollow laugh).

Colleagues and other animals.

Had a young man in the other night with a minor laceration to his hand. Wound was closed and dressed but while he was alone in the cubicle I heard the cupboard door opening. Went in and had a look and there is the lad with a pocketful of tape and alcowipes. We asked him what he thought he was doing and got the usual answer - "nothing". We took the tape and alcowipes from him, he did not even know what the alcowipes were, never mind what they were for. Asked why he had taken them he did not know, they were there so they were his. Now I hate thieves, I really, really hate thieves. I sometimes think that there is a place for cutting off hands, but let's not get into that just now. I had a look in the cupboard and noticed that the needle stock seemed a bit low so I asked him to put the needles back. He of course denied he had taken needles. gave him one more chance - "put the needles back or I call the police". No, he did not take the needles. OK, police were called. To give the chap his due, he did not run off as I expected but hung around the department demanding that I search him - no way was I going near him.
Police arrived and had a word with him and his girlfriend, did a quick search and of course nothing was found. I was called to reception to have a word with the policeman where he informed me of the outcome but then said that the toe-rag was accusing me of assaulting him and his girlfriend was backing up his story. I was horrified, and tried to explain that the last time I hit anyone was 1969 when I was 14 and at school, where just occasionally you do have to hit people. Policeman was all apologetic but said I would have to make a statement and come down to the police station. I can't go anywhere, I'm in charge of this department we are short staffed as it is. then I remembered, we have cameras, surely that would show that I was no where near him. At this point the policeman, my colleague and the reception staff who were listening to this all burst into laughter. B*st**ds!! They were winding me up, the policeman blamed my colleague and said that he had been asked to do it by him and had quite happily gone along with the gag. Must have been a slow night. Not much I can do to the policeman but at least it proves that they do have sense of humour, but my colleague however will suffer, as soon as I can find a suitably dirty job for him to do.