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.