Well it had to happen sooner or later, I met my boyfriend's mother the other evening for a meal. I had been stressing about it for a few days prior to it happening and it didn't help that he had told her "Everything" about us.......yeah I thought "EVERYTHING!!!!" OH MY GOD!!!! I am a dead man. Anyway the day arrived and I was working 7-7 dayshift so we had arranged to meet at 2015hrs in a little restaurant in Edinburgh (Very nice and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for good scottish food). I arrived dutifully at 2010hrs and saw their taxi pulling up, my stomach churned as I walked over to meet the both of them. We all stood outside the restaurant for a few moments exchanging plesantaries and went inside. Having taking our seats in the restaurant we chatted and I felt more relaxed and at ease, during the course of the evening the conversation moved from NHS changes, to IT issues, to my BF and his mother catching up on old times. The meal went well and I didn't even spill anything over myself, even although I was shaking inside. At the end of the evening we dropped off my BF's mother at her hotel and said our goodbye. I think the night went well and hope that when I meet her and the rest of the family in December it will goes just as well :)
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
Exams
Oh how I hate exams, I have one coming up in the not to distant future and I have finally decided to start studying for it......Yes I know I should have studied more and earlier but such is life! Anyway I am about to start hitting the books big time, but I am not one of those lucky people who can look a something and take it in, I have to draw things and see practical demos etc etc, I think it is called visual learning, oh well here I go!!!
Thursday, November 18, 2004
The end of an era
Well it is with great sadness that I have to tell you that the last of the original QIU personnel will leave on Friday. Yes it is true....my colleague and supporting act who I worked with for nearly 2 years when I was in the QIU department is leaving, and she is not only leaving the department but she is also leaving the Service :(
I am sure that she will have a far more easy life working in the private sector (or what ever else she decides to do) but the place will not be the same without her (I will not have my gossip source for one.... lol)
Anyway I know that she reads my blog, so Fiona "All the best in your new career" I know that if you give half as much to the new job as you did to the department your new job will be a total success.
I am sure that she will have a far more easy life working in the private sector (or what ever else she decides to do) but the place will not be the same without her (I will not have my gossip source for one.... lol)
Anyway I know that she reads my blog, so Fiona "All the best in your new career" I know that if you give half as much to the new job as you did to the department your new job will be a total success.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Last night
Well it has finally come, the last of my 7 nights. I enjoy night shift, I know I go on a bit but I really do. I think that nights are a more relaxed period to work, you can get a chance to speak to the staff in A&E and have a laugh. The staff in A&E this week have been really nice, they have a good sense of humour and supply the best chocolates and sweets going!!
I received a call from my boyfriend today telling me that he is going to a Community First Responder (CFR) meeting tonight in my area (He is a member of the British Red Cross....yeah yeah I know I am in Squinty Cross, or St. Andrew's as it is really know) and he is keen to become a CFR as he eventually wants to join the Ambulance Service but he does not have the necessary driving standards (C1 &D1) to drive a service resource so he is currently doing his bus course to get the qualifications required. Anyway I am sure he will be full of lots of information in relation to the CFR program in my area, who knows, he might end up going to the same calls as me!!!!
Right I am off to have some food, as I have noticed that I am going on a bit now.
Toodles.
I received a call from my boyfriend today telling me that he is going to a Community First Responder (CFR) meeting tonight in my area (He is a member of the British Red Cross....yeah yeah I know I am in Squinty Cross, or St. Andrew's as it is really know) and he is keen to become a CFR as he eventually wants to join the Ambulance Service but he does not have the necessary driving standards (C1 &D1) to drive a service resource so he is currently doing his bus course to get the qualifications required. Anyway I am sure he will be full of lots of information in relation to the CFR program in my area, who knows, he might end up going to the same calls as me!!!!
Right I am off to have some food, as I have noticed that I am going on a bit now.
Toodles.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Oh the decisions
Well I have just got out of bed an hour ago and I am having to make a big decision already....What do I want for my breakfast/tea? You see when you work nights your body is totally messed up, I get home in the morning and am starving, so I have supper (usually toast), but then when I get up it is breakfast time for my body but really tea time, so I have to have something that will keep me going during the night and is not too heavy just now. I usually have a cuppa soup during the night (which is lunch time for me). I have been know to drive home after my night shift thinking I wish I could have a curry or chippy!!!
Oh well toast and vegimite is calling
Oh well toast and vegimite is calling
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Time keeping.........not
Well here I am, sitting at home after my 3rd night shift, I managed to crawl out of my bed yesterday to meet my boyfriend for a nice meal, the only thing was I was due back on at work at 2000hrs, I met J (my man) at 5pm and we went to a lovely little restaurant which we are know to frequent at times, had a lovely meal and chilled out, It was then that things started to go wrong (I noticed the time) 1830hrs and I am still in Edinburgh and had to go shopping before work!
We finished our meal and headed to the local Tesco store to get what I needed, finished shopping I dropped J off at his and got changed for work and headed to my station (on the way J calls to say "I suppose you don't need your wallet?" F***, F***, F*** I think oh well can't go back now. I get to work at 1955hrs (Remember start at 2000hrs) and as I walk in the door my colleague is walking out to the Ambulance saying "We have a call already" and that was how the rest of the night was to be...... Now I am going to bed for a well deserved sleep!!
Night night x
We finished our meal and headed to the local Tesco store to get what I needed, finished shopping I dropped J off at his and got changed for work and headed to my station (on the way J calls to say "I suppose you don't need your wallet?" F***, F***, F*** I think oh well can't go back now. I get to work at 1955hrs (Remember start at 2000hrs) and as I walk in the door my colleague is walking out to the Ambulance saying "We have a call already" and that was how the rest of the night was to be...... Now I am going to bed for a well deserved sleep!!
Night night x
Do people never sleep?
Well here I am again, on my 7 nights, I have managed to survive my first night back even although I felt rotten because of my sore throat and I started early to cover an organised fireworks display.
Well 1800hrs and my colleague and I are heading out of the station to cover the fireworks display, even although it is raining the park is quite busy, we arrive and position ourselves beside the main stage next to the Police and first aiders (can't be real first aiders though, they did not offer us any coffee!!). The event starts well and the music is good (Cha cha slide reminds me of my days at Ambulance College and I am caught dancing behind the ambulance by a female cop *BLUSH*), I receive a call from my boyfriend who is covering a fireworks display in a less than salubrious part of Edinburgh as a first aider (Bet he had tea or coffee or at least body armour) and we chat about each other's event (it is lovely to hear from him and he cheers me up every time he calls).
My colleague and I are supposed to be covering the event until 2200hrs when we then start our shift, but the fireworks display finishes at 2030hrs so we think that we will get a chance to have a cuppa before we start........Oh no that is not the case, as we are leaving we are approached by two Police officers who ask if we are attending the collapse at the entrance to the park, we look at each other and both say "What collapse?" and the cops tell us that they called into Ambulance Control to request an Ambulance, so we turn on the blue lights, carryout a perfect 3 point turn and proceed to the area whilst trying to contact the Control to tell them that we are attending. We pick up our patient from this and head into A/E (which is nice and quiet). After clearing from this we receive another 999 call for an assault in the park, upon arriving we discover 2 patients waiting for us, we clean them up and get them calmed down in the Ambulance whilst waiting on the Police. Once we clear from this call at 2155hrs we head back to the station to start our normal shift, we just finish checking our shift vehicle and receive our next call, and so it continues all night, the majority of calls seem to be for assaults or traumatic injuries, which result in us traveling great distances throughout the division and beyond to neighbouring areas as well. The Controller, who is new to the job, is keen to make sure that we are fed on time, which is nice, but he also makes sure that we are working for the rest of the shift. We eventually get back to station at 0500hrs for a well deserved rest and cuppa and are dispatched again to our last 999 of the evening at 0645hrs for a patient with difficulty in breathing. My colleague and I are both glad to see 0800hrs and even more happy to see our colleagues waiting at the station when we arrive to take over our vehicle. I hope tonight is not the same as last night, I think I am too old for this (My boyfriend would agree that I AM old).
Well 1800hrs and my colleague and I are heading out of the station to cover the fireworks display, even although it is raining the park is quite busy, we arrive and position ourselves beside the main stage next to the Police and first aiders (can't be real first aiders though, they did not offer us any coffee!!). The event starts well and the music is good (Cha cha slide reminds me of my days at Ambulance College and I am caught dancing behind the ambulance by a female cop *BLUSH*), I receive a call from my boyfriend who is covering a fireworks display in a less than salubrious part of Edinburgh as a first aider (Bet he had tea or coffee or at least body armour) and we chat about each other's event (it is lovely to hear from him and he cheers me up every time he calls).
My colleague and I are supposed to be covering the event until 2200hrs when we then start our shift, but the fireworks display finishes at 2030hrs so we think that we will get a chance to have a cuppa before we start........Oh no that is not the case, as we are leaving we are approached by two Police officers who ask if we are attending the collapse at the entrance to the park, we look at each other and both say "What collapse?" and the cops tell us that they called into Ambulance Control to request an Ambulance, so we turn on the blue lights, carryout a perfect 3 point turn and proceed to the area whilst trying to contact the Control to tell them that we are attending. We pick up our patient from this and head into A/E (which is nice and quiet). After clearing from this we receive another 999 call for an assault in the park, upon arriving we discover 2 patients waiting for us, we clean them up and get them calmed down in the Ambulance whilst waiting on the Police. Once we clear from this call at 2155hrs we head back to the station to start our normal shift, we just finish checking our shift vehicle and receive our next call, and so it continues all night, the majority of calls seem to be for assaults or traumatic injuries, which result in us traveling great distances throughout the division and beyond to neighbouring areas as well. The Controller, who is new to the job, is keen to make sure that we are fed on time, which is nice, but he also makes sure that we are working for the rest of the shift. We eventually get back to station at 0500hrs for a well deserved rest and cuppa and are dispatched again to our last 999 of the evening at 0645hrs for a patient with difficulty in breathing. My colleague and I are both glad to see 0800hrs and even more happy to see our colleagues waiting at the station when we arrive to take over our vehicle. I hope tonight is not the same as last night, I think I am too old for this (My boyfriend would agree that I AM old).
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Single Crewed....Not
Well there I was thinking that I would be single crewed (for those of you who have read my previous entry), but no the Control managed to find me a friend to play with in the neighbouring division so I was told that once I had checked my vehicle I was to go over and double up with my colleague. Happy to oblige I checked my vehicle and grabbed my coffee and headed out to team up. Whilst on my way I was contacted by the Control and told that the crew that had just passed me with their lights and sirens going were heading to an RTA (Road Traffic Accident) and could I attend to back them up as it was a report of 2 patients trapped thinking to myself thank god they are in front I set of with lights and sirens blazing. Upon my arrival I could not believe what I saw, it was a car on it's roof with most of the passanger compartment crushed flat at the front, my colleagues were gathering up the necessary equipment from their vehicle and asked me to request another double crewed vehicle to attend.
Now to put you in the picture, this was the main street through a fairly small village which has good speed reducing measures (obviously not good enough I hear you cry), this is why everyone who arrived asked the same question......"How the hell did that happen?"
I eventually cleared from the scene when the second patient was packaged up and loaded into the first ambulance (the first patient to leave went on the third vehicle as it had managed to turn before being blocked in by WF trucks (fire appliances). Neither of the patients had seriously life threatening injuries, but were treated as such because of the mechanisms of injury.
For the remainder of the day I worked with my colleage and we were dispatched to several calls, nothing as exciting as the first of the day (this was my colleagues words not mine).
Well at least I did not kill (kill = lose) anyone today :)
Now to put you in the picture, this was the main street through a fairly small village which has good speed reducing measures (obviously not good enough I hear you cry), this is why everyone who arrived asked the same question......"How the hell did that happen?"
I eventually cleared from the scene when the second patient was packaged up and loaded into the first ambulance (the first patient to leave went on the third vehicle as it had managed to turn before being blocked in by WF trucks (fire appliances). Neither of the patients had seriously life threatening injuries, but were treated as such because of the mechanisms of injury.
For the remainder of the day I worked with my colleage and we were dispatched to several calls, nothing as exciting as the first of the day (this was my colleagues words not mine).
Well at least I did not kill (kill = lose) anyone today :)
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Oh to be single crewed
Well here I am, sitting in my dressing gown, munching on some cheese on toast and drinking hot chocolate and thinking about work.....yes it is true, after 2 1/2 months of being operational staff I am going out single crewed today (God help the public of Scotland). I start at 12 md and finish hopefully at 2000hrs this evening, I wonder how many people I will kill (well not literally, but kill = not save) today?
Did you know that my kill ratio is sitting at 100% so far? well it is, that is because each of the critically ill patients that I have dealt with have either expired by the time I get them to hospital (although I blame the resus teams for that one) or were well dead before I even got a chance to place a defib pad on them. I hope today is not going to be like that!!!
Did you know that my kill ratio is sitting at 100% so far? well it is, that is because each of the critically ill patients that I have dealt with have either expired by the time I get them to hospital (although I blame the resus teams for that one) or were well dead before I even got a chance to place a defib pad on them. I hope today is not going to be like that!!!
Monday, November 01, 2004
Night Shifts
Well there we go, I have managed to survive another set of busy nights..... When I arrived on Friday evening I expected to be busy for the full night, since it was the first Friday after payday.......... but to my surprise the volume of work did not match my expectations. By the end of my 12 hrs we had treated 6 patients in total, nothing too taxing for my skills either.
Saturday was however a completely different story. Arrived as usual at 1830hrs (6:30pm) and put the kettle on whilst chatting to colleagues about their day, the vehicle I was taking over was just pulling into the carpark so I knew that I would get a good chance to check it over before starting my shift. 1845hrs I put my bag into the vehicle and started to check the vehicle, this means ensuring that there is sufficient equipment on the vehicle and that all this is in good working order. I had just completed checking the Defib and was about to check the response bag when the phone went and my partner for the evening shouted out the mess room door that we had a 999 call, so there we were 1854hrs and already winging our way through the streets with lights and sirens going and this was how it was going to be for the rest of the shift.
When we cleared from this call, we were returned to base to finish checking our vehicle, whilst we were in the A&E department the staff advised us that they were having a dooking competition and that we were invited to join in later in the shift if we were not too busy......HA HA HA
I had promised to supply the chocolate for the A&E nursing staff (I have never seen anyone smile so much when given a box of maltesers) to cheer them up as they were looking stressed the night before.
We eventually managed to get our break at 2345hrs (second time around after being disturbed for a male who when my colleague (a very pleasant female paramedic) spoke to him told her to "F**k off" so we did.....we are not there to be abused!
After our 13th call of the evening (and it was only 0345hrs) we managed to get another break and recieved our next call to transfer a male who was out with a friend whilst here on holiday and was jumped and punched (sustained a # mandible whilst trying to protect his friend) to a maxillo facial specialist nearer to his home address. This was our last call of the evening and we were glad to see our colleagues sitting on the station at 0640hrs when we returned.
Guess what I am working next weekend?????? YES NIGHT SHIFT Again :)
Saturday was however a completely different story. Arrived as usual at 1830hrs (6:30pm) and put the kettle on whilst chatting to colleagues about their day, the vehicle I was taking over was just pulling into the carpark so I knew that I would get a good chance to check it over before starting my shift. 1845hrs I put my bag into the vehicle and started to check the vehicle, this means ensuring that there is sufficient equipment on the vehicle and that all this is in good working order. I had just completed checking the Defib and was about to check the response bag when the phone went and my partner for the evening shouted out the mess room door that we had a 999 call, so there we were 1854hrs and already winging our way through the streets with lights and sirens going and this was how it was going to be for the rest of the shift.
When we cleared from this call, we were returned to base to finish checking our vehicle, whilst we were in the A&E department the staff advised us that they were having a dooking competition and that we were invited to join in later in the shift if we were not too busy......HA HA HA
I had promised to supply the chocolate for the A&E nursing staff (I have never seen anyone smile so much when given a box of maltesers) to cheer them up as they were looking stressed the night before.
We eventually managed to get our break at 2345hrs (second time around after being disturbed for a male who when my colleague (a very pleasant female paramedic) spoke to him told her to "F**k off" so we did.....we are not there to be abused!
After our 13th call of the evening (and it was only 0345hrs) we managed to get another break and recieved our next call to transfer a male who was out with a friend whilst here on holiday and was jumped and punched (sustained a # mandible whilst trying to protect his friend) to a maxillo facial specialist nearer to his home address. This was our last call of the evening and we were glad to see our colleagues sitting on the station at 0640hrs when we returned.
Guess what I am working next weekend?????? YES NIGHT SHIFT Again :)
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