Scotsmedicman

At LaSt!!!

2007-11-11T23:30:00.001Z

Well you will be pleased to know that I managed to get myself a short notice cancellation space on an ALS course........in Wales!!

So I popped into the car and nipped down (4 1/2hrs drive) and booked myself into the hotel which was next to the hospital (very nice too I may add) and I hit the books, studied like a mad man and eventually it was my turn to do my assessments, now the nice course organiser left my pre-course assessment at the hotel reception for me and I had to complete that and take it with me on day one, I did this as the good student and sat and listened to the lectures and participated in the practical skill stations, of which there were a few!

It came to the afternoon of the second day far too quickly, this meant written and then practical assessments. So I went in with 11 other students and we sat the written multi-guess erm multiple choice paper and then it was out and straight into a practical assessment, then when you finished this you were asked to step outside and wait to see if you were successful in your practicals, if you were un-successful you were given the chance to re-sit one more attempt.....I was in the lucky few who did not need a re-sit so we had to just hang around waiting on the final results....

Mr SMM?

yes?

Congratulations, we are pleased to tell you that you have passed!!!!!!!

YIPEE! I was soooo excited, I am glad that is over with, only one more course this year.......why do I keep doing it to myself??? Why Why why????

Back to work.....for a rest

2007-10-15T11:15:00.000+01:00

Well I have been on annual leave for the last 2 weeks and in that time I think I have had 1 full day to myself, I had planned to do my ALS course during this time, but it had to be cancelled because of a problem that no-one could have possibly considered. So this left me with lots of time to do nothing...Oh no I mentioned to the administrator at St. Andrew's Edinburgh HQ and she instantly smiles and I find myself on duties, attending meetings and planning for forthcoming events. Now I am not moaning I really enjoyed getting back to basics in regards to patient care...plasters, triangular bandages etc etc and also getting an insight into the running of the corps and seeing the pressures that we (corps members) put onto the office staff at times when we could probably get off our arses and do it ourselves (but it's in the office anyway so THEY should do it........) I have enjoyed my time off, but I will be glad to get back to work this evening for a rest!!!

Oh did I tell you I was on holiday again for 3weeks as from Sunday??

Yipee Amsterdam Here I Come!!!!!!

ALaS it's not to be

2007-10-15T11:12:00.000+01:00

Well I was all ready for my ALS course and then I received the email...."Due to some unfortunate circumstances totally outwith our control we are having to cancel your course that you were looking forward to doing, yeah the one you have been studying for the last 3 months, yip that's the one that you were bricking yourself about.......We don't know when the next one is going to be but if you want you can wait a while a we will get back to you"

Well it didn't actually say that, but to me it did..... Oh well just got to find another one and see if I can be squeezed onto that one at short notice with little studying time!!!!

And it AlL Starts again!

2007-09-25T00:56:00.000+01:00

Well here I am again, about to embark upon yet another course, I am about a week away from putting myself through another two days of sheer hell, all for the patient care I should add....

I have managed to secure myself a place on an ALS course, these are few a far between at the minute because of the influx on new Doctors, who are superior in their requirements to get a place on these type of courses. I have luckily managed to get a course in Glasgow, which will be much better than having to travel to Birmingham or Inverness like some of my friends for their courses.

I am looking forward to the course, it teaches Advanced Life Support, with the take being on In-Hospital Team based resuscitation, this is different from the lone responder, ALS skills that you are taught at Ambulance College, there is more emphasis placed on the roles and responsibilities and also working as a well rehearsed / oiled team, utilising the skills that others bring with them. I have been speaking with some colleagues who have done the course and they say that they found the chemistry aspect challenging, blood gases, results etc and also found it strange stepping back and "Running the resus" remotely.

I am obviously nervous about it, I like a challenge and hope that I will enjoy this as much as the PhEC course I did in July, I will keep you all updated.

Weekend of Fun!!

2007-09-10T15:46:00.000+01:00

We this is my first chance in ages to actually sit down and blog, I have been busy working, with some interesting calls and I will blog these later. But I have had a full on weekend of partying.

It started on Friday with a friends wedding, I met up with some friends first of all in a local pub, then we went to the Gold Club, where the ceramony and reception were being held. I was expecting to see Kal there as he told me he would be going, but I later found out he was working. The night went well, the Bride and Groom were nervous, the Bride looked lovely. It was great to see so many old faces, some which I had not seen for a couple of years, so it was good to get together and catch up, the alcohol and music helped and by the end of the night I was grinding and dancing my ass off with GB on the dance floor to the B52's and numerous other good tunes.

Saturday saw a more relaxed day, then working for St. Andrew's on the Saturday night at the Corn Exchange, covering some gala dinner until the wee small hours of Sunday.....

Sunday saw me up bright and early to start teaching / instructing on a course which ran until 4pm. Getting home I rest and chill for a while, grab a bite to eat and head for the shower, make myself presentable for the next on-slaught of party time..... ERASURE CONCERT!!!!

I meet up with some friends in the Doctors pub, then we head along to the Chesser bar to catch up with some other friends, some drinking takes place and then onto the Corn Exchange. Now I have been to this place the night before on duty at the gala dinner, I have been here many times on duty, but I have never been there as a patron during a concert..(have been here for Christmas nights out) It was great, the music was fantastic, the drinks were flowing, the dance floor was jumping and the atmosphere was increadible....

as you can see from the video!!

And now I have to behave and go back to work and be the professional that I am supposed to be.....Booooooh

Oh PhEC!!!

2007-07-16T13:49:00.001+01:00

Well it has been ages since I have updated you all on what I have been doing. I am sorry that I am such a poor blogger at the minute, but what with work, volunteering and studying I have not had much time to sit down and blog.

As you will be aware, I have been studying for some courses I recently completed, here goes with the update on them:

Minor injuries, this was a fantastic course which covered various aspects of primary care in relation to the management of patients with minor injuries, we covered management of soft tissue injuries (strains, sprains etc) along with wound management (burns and opthalmic inuries were also discussed in detail, with some very interesting pictures to re inforce the topics!) there were also some great sessions on wound closure either using medical glues or old fashioned sutures, along with the assessment of the wound and the decission on how to close them.

Pre Hospital Emergency Care (PhEC) Course, well to say that you hit the ground running is a bit of an understatement, I spent 2 1/2 days cramming information from the excellent faculty staff into my already full brain, they had a great mix on the faculty, coming from General Practice, In Hospital A&E / Critical Care, Nursing, Fire and medical responders who all had so much information to share. I was in a syndicate of 5, which was made up from a GP who was also a Senior Medical Officer in the armed forces, an A&E Dr from Edinburgh who I knew (but didn't know was coming on the course) a Cruise Liner Nursing Sister and a Medical Student, we worked well as a team and there was a good skills mix, which allowed us to support each other with different ideas and previous experiences. On the final day after we had gone through our multiple choice exams and our OSCE we were eventually given our results......"I am glad to say Mr SMM that you have passed all the necessary criteria and therefore you have achieved your PhEC Certificate.....oh by the way you got a Merit :) Well Done" I got a Merit......well you could have knocked me over with a feather, I was so surprised, I was not surprised I passed, but to gain a merit status

Whilst I was in London on my PhEC course I thought that I would try and arrange a ride along with the London Ambulance Service (Since I have a great friend who works for them I contacted her and asked if this would be ok) I was afforded the opportunity to spend two shifts with her, working from two different stations over the two days. I was impressed with some of their kit that they have available to them, although they do predominantly the same work as us in Scotland, there are subtile differences. I think I bumped into Random whilst I was in A&E, but I didn't get a chance to speak to him. I got several strange looks (uniform differencies) and the accent confused some folk (since 2 out of the 3 on the Ambulance had a strong Scottish accent!) I thouroughly enjoyed my time with the LAS and would like to thank everyone who made me feel welcome.

So what else? well in between studying and working I have also been on duty with St. Andrew's First Aid, I have covered some interesting events, the Moon Walk, Royal Highland Show, Blondie and Pink concerts, these have been fun, but it is difficult because St. Andrew's do not recognise any advanced skills and therefore as a Paramedic, I am expected to work as a First Aider, now this can at times be difficult especially when you are out on patrol with a British Red Cross first aider who is also an Ambulance Technician, you can imagine the looks that you get when the event Ambulance Crew turn up and see you both dealing with a patient but only as a first aider......

So this is my only day off this week and I am sitting in a coffee shop with a massive mug of Latte and enjoying the quietness of life, no rushing around between work, teaching First Responders, Covering first aid duties / events and studying for courses.......

I will try and keep up to date, but hey it's me!

Courses courses courses.....

2007-05-15T13:25:00.000+01:00

Yeah as you may have guessed I am enrolling onto some courses over the next coming months. I have completed a neonatal resuscitation course and that gave me the "learning" bug again, so I looked on the limited web pages for NHS courses and I have found myself enrolling in the following to keep me busy:

Critical Care study day, 1 day course at St. Johns Hospital, which covered the care of the critically injured patient, from the time they arrive in hospital to their discharge (some aspects were not relevant to my role, but still interesting).
Managing the Critical ill child, another 1 day study course at St. Johns Hospital, I always feel very aware of my limited paediatric knowledge, hence the course!
Pre Hospital Emergency Care (PHEC) Course, this is a 3 day course run by BASICS Education in London.
Advanced Life Support (ALS) Course, this is a two 1/2 day course run in Glasgow, which covers further aspects of "Advanced" life support skills that I have already learnt as a Paramedic.
Minor Injuries Course, this course covers, strangely as it says minor injuries, the assessment and treatment including suturing and wound glue to name but a few of the skills.

I also have plans to learn Polish and want to learn BSL, Kal has a basic knowledge so I may have to call him and ask for s few lessons... On the subject of Kal, we are still friends, I think I am getting used to the idea of not having him around as much as before, I was chatting to one of his friends yesterday and it sounds like he is doing well, I am trying hard not to call / text him so that I am not being a stalker.

I hope that these courses will provide me with the chance to blog about the content, the style of teaching and mostly the assessments, which to be perfectly honest about I am shitting myself.

I am really looking forward to the challenges of the courses and want to enjoy them, maybe this will push me further into academia and encourage me to continue towards my Diploma in Immediate Medical Care!

Observers curse

2007-05-11T01:33:00.000+01:00

Observers....

I have had observers out with me in the past, they range from first aiders to student nurses and even Kal when he was in Ambulance school! There is a common curse which follows observers, they come out and get nothing of interest. This seems to always be the case, the last two observers have had very little action, one got to see me deal with a particularly nasty scald and the other got all fairly minor run of the mill stuff. I have had a member of EMDC staff out and they managed to clock up a few jobs, but in their own word "no trauma again!" apparently each time they have been out they never get trauma and the most blood they have seen is when a patient is cannulated!

I have been asked to take out some more EMDC staff in the near future, maybe they will be more lucky than their colleagues and get something interesting.......but I doubt it!

Strange Scottish Whether

2007-04-25T13:20:00.000+01:00

It was a strange shift, nothing to taxing for me and my colleague, however the whether made for interesting driving. as I was driving through to work it was a warm sunny evening, the type of night you enjoy walking along the beech or sitting outside with friends in a beer garden. I however was not going to taste beer or any alcohol except for the strong heavy smell coming from my patients who had consumed some light refreshments earlier in the evening, which mixed with the excessive tablets they had taken caused their loved ones concern enough to dial 999.

Over the 20 miles I travel to work I manage to listen to some music, think about various things and get myself ready to face the public, I think about what is in store for me tonight, what vehicle I might be on, who I'm working with and generally life. I also think I should be out with friends getting drunk in the sunshine.

After checking our vehicle and having a cuppa we settle down and wait. We get a couple of jobs in the area, we chat en route and both enjoy the heat, however, the whether feels different, muggy, heavy air, like a storm is brewing. We switch roles halfway through our shift, I now drive and as we are pulling into the A&E to collect a patient to transfer to The Royal the rain starts spitting. The patient is loaded, his friends are waiting in their cars to follow us through, the 25 mile journey passing my house, to the hospital. Once on the motorway the rain is now heavier, the need to have the wiper blades running constantly to keep the windscreen clear, the as we are entering the city limits and coming onto the bypass the skies, which only 3 hours ago were clear and filled with warm sunshine are now totally black and the rain is pouring torrentially, massive down pouring, causing mini rivers to develop on the carriageway, flooding down the hills to meet you, wipers on full speed and just managing to cope. We arrive at the Royal and it is cooler, freshly bathed air blows around the ambulance bay, the rain has passed, it has washed away the stale smell of vomit and alcohol from the air, it is fresh now, almost tropical as the heat builds up again, but with the dampness still in the air. I love our whether, so many surprises around the next bend, maybe we'll get snow next!!!!

Time passes

2007-04-20T12:09:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a fortnight since Kal and I broke up, I've seen him a few times since, some were more difficult than others, there have been moments of silence, moments of pain and lots of tears either alone or with others. It is still difficult not seeing him, but I think it is getting easier, I still think about him, waken in the morning with thoughts of him, but it doesn't hurt as much as it has not hearing from him, not receiving the "Good morning / night" text messages which were our way of communicating when we were on different shifts and had not see each other for a few days.

I know that it will get easier, people keep telling me that, wit time I'm sure it will.

I was around at Kal's earlier this week collecting some stuff, that was a difficult time for me it mad things feel so final, so much so that when I said goodbye to Kal and he said "yeah see you" I just wanted to die, the pain was so immense, it felt so impersonal, I know he didn't mean to be, because I could feel his pain as well when we hugged, but it still hurt. I've been reading his blog, I was surprised he blogged about the break up, he is not normally one to discuss his personal feelings, I know he will have struggled with his emotions before he blogged his thoughts and feelings. Kal is good at hiding his thoughts and feelings, but inside I know he'll be struggling and hurting, he has had longer to come to terms with the break up, longer to become accustomed to single life, but he's also had to cope with these mix of feelings and emotions whilst still trying to be my boyfriend.

I hope he is well as I don't want to seem to be bothering him and bombarding him with text messages, I want to stay in contact and be friends, but I don't want to be "chasing" him either to the point that we fall out and fight or make him feel uncomfortable or pissed off when I contact him, so I'm going to let him contact me, give him his space, his time, his choice!

Birthday Cheer?

2007-04-17T09:40:00.000+01:00

Well it was Kal's birthday yesterday, I arranged to meet up with him after he had finished at a work related meeting. We met up in one of our regular coffee shops and sat, I didn't really say much and neither did he, it was difficult, we both finished our coffee and he walked me to the car to collect his birthday card and gifts, they were gifts that I had bought when we were together, I had changed the card obviously as he is no longer my boyfriend so the original one was inappropriate. During our strained conversation I found out that he was going for a meal with his flat mate and one of his friends (that hurt, because I had been obviously as his boyfriend planning to take him to a rather exclusive place for a romantic meal) then on for drinks, which I was invited along to afterwards.

I thought about going, it tore me apart not going, but it also would have torn me up more if I'd have been drunk, I might have said or worse still done something totally inappropriate and felt guilty afterwards, I text Kal to apologise for my absence and wished him all the best, I think in my heart I did the right thing, I think we both might have hurt more if we had met up for drinks, I hope I'm not wrong and I've distanced him from me, that was not my intention at all.

Happy (belated) Birthday Kal x

Coffee & Cake

2007-04-14T23:27:00.000+01:00

Well I arranged to meet up with Kal, I know you will probably think it's too soon and a stupid thing to do, but it was something that had to be done.

We met in neutral territory, somewhere we both feel completely familiar with. We sat in silence, picking at threads of conversation, trying to be strong, but I could see the pain in his eyes and felt the pain as he stroked my back and brushed against my leg with his knee. I also felt a closeness to him, knowing the pain he is feeling, because I'm feeling it as well.

We had settled into conversation by the second round of drinks, I still hurt and feel like crying, but I haven't so far so that must be good. He looks good as well, but also looks like he needs a massive hug, I just wanted to shove the table out the way and hold him tight in my arms, he needs to cry, he looks like he's bottling it all up and I know what he's like, he'll become more withdrawn!

We walked out to our cars and both stood there not knowing what to do, in the past we would kiss, now though....

We both at the same time walked forward and hugged, a tight, secure hold, not caring who was watching and disapproving, we both needed it! It will get easier is what I keep hearing, I hope so, I want him back as my best friend, I know deep down it's over, but that's not to say we need to be enemies, we may have to work together after all!

My questions

2007-04-13T00:12:00.000+01:00

How?

That is one of the questions that keeps going round in my head, How did I not see all this coming, there were as far as I can see no signs whatsoever of Kal wanting to finish with me! I loved being around him, feeling him touching me, holding me, yeah sure we had our differences, but doesn't everyone? We were talking not so long ago about summer holidays, planning on taking our parents away for a weekend, was it all lies, was he really ever in love with me?

Why?

That is another question I can't answer, why so suddenly did he stop being in love with me, why didn't we talk, did he try and tell me but I missed the signals?

I know he has been thinking about it for a while, he told me when we split, but surely I should have picked up on something, was I so self absorbed on making sure we had fun, making sure I looked out for him that I totally misunderstood him and his responses to me? Was I such a shit boyfriend, lover, partner?

I was speaking to a colleague today and she, like so many other colleagues said she was so surprised because we seemed so close, so good, so well suited to each other. I know what she means, I have had long term relationships before, but I've never been so totally and utterly devastated by breaking up, it doesn't feel like anything I've experienced in a break-up, more like when I heard about the death of a very good childhood friend, I am totally at a loss.

My station manager was good, today was the first time I've seen him since Kal broke up with me, he was spot on in his reactions, he knew just how much to say and more importantly what not to say.

I have just called Kal, I know I shouldn't have, I was hoping it would just be his voice mail, but he picked up, he was back from his day's away, working nights but on a break, we spoke, I felt guilty, I feel worse now than I did before I called and yes I know I shouldn't have, Kal I know you'll read this, I'm sorry for being short and a bit shity towards you, it was probably not a good idea, but I had to hear your voice, to know you were safe, I still care deeply about you, I still love you,

I'm sitting at my thinking spot, you know where Kal, totally alone, listening to F1 and the song that is playing sums up my feelings right now, 'Lost without you', I don't know who the female is, maybe Delta Goodrum?, but that's how I feel!

Plea e call me, if you want to and can face speaking. X

Still hurting

2007-04-11T22:40:00.000+01:00

Well it's been 3 day's since I've had contact from Kal, he is having time to himself. I know that he's ok because he's blogging, so I'm happy that he is doing ok, but I still miss him.

I have had lots of hugs, kind words and cups of tea offered from friends and colleagues, this is nice, it's good to see that people I've known for years are rallying around to offer support, however, it would still be nice to hear from Kal just a text or a blog comment or even a phone call so that I can get to tell him I care, I still want to be friends, I want to be there for him, especially with his Birthday coming soon, it will be difficult for me, but I want him to know I still care a lot for him,

I can't just turn off the feelings, compassion and love I had for him over the last two and a half years! Somewhere in my heart I still love him x

I still think about him first thing every morning and last thing at night.

thoughts and feelings

2007-04-09T17:17:00.000+01:00

I lie here, sun streaming through the cracks of the blinds, the world going about it's business, people laughing, people celebrating Easter with their loved ones. Time passes slowly, I know I have been watching the clock tick through every minute for the last two hours, like a bug struggling to get free from treacle, I feel safe here, under the duvet, knowing I cannot get upset if I don't think about it, but I do think about it, I always used to think about Kal, first though when I woke and my last as I slipped into sleep. I was lying the other day, slipping off and could see the happy times, his face, I could feel his breath on me, I so long to feel that again, to know everything will be fine but it's not going to happen. I was jolted awake by my guardian angel, who knew there was more it wasn't the right time to sleep I needed to be awake, to be strong to be alive and get out there and face the world. I have to force myself to shower, to shave to put on that brave face because things will get better, people do care, but I care too, I care about hurting, I care about upsetting those who care for me, I care about getting on with life and having to go through the anguish of breaking the news of the break-up. I was asked last night by a lovely colleague if I 'felt better' as I had been off sick and I burst into tears and ran off to hide, I managed to tell her what was wrong, but I felt such a fool not being able to talk. Kal always said I needed to talk more about my feelings, I was a good listener, I still am, but I'm shit at letting go of my thoughts and feelings, maybe if I'd spoke more.......maybe

And now it hurts

2007-04-08T13:25:00.000+01:00

I can now sit a write this, it has been 72hrs of complete a utter agony, I have been totally devastated with what has happened. As you may know I have been going out with Kal for the last 2 1/2yrs and over that period we have had some amazing times, however on Thursday evening we met up and the news was broken, he still loves and cares for me, but not enough to be in love with me, as you might guess this was a total shock to me, yes we have fought and had disagreements but nothing that we haven't fixed. I have spent many many hours agonising and wondering why, what, how and still not came to any conclusions. I met with Kal yesterday and had another long painful, but honest talk, we both said things that hurt, I've done things over the last 48hrs that upset Kal, caused him anguish and pain, it wasn't as blackmail or punishment just not thinking and being so self absorbed with the pain I was feeling I couldn't see the pain other's felt for and with me. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has text me since they found out, I would also like to say to Kal "friends, no matter when it is, if you need me call" I wish him all the luck in the world, hope he finds happiness one day and I hope he doesn't feel half the pain I've gone through, but if he is hurt, upset, worried or just needs to cry, drink tea or have a hug I'll be there, cup, hankies and arms ready. I love you Kal, as a friend and still somewhere in my heart as a lover x

Long time coming

2007-04-04T08:26:00.000+01:00

Life is strange, people drift into and out of life, some at the blink of an eye. Life deals some people a bad hand, knocking them time and time again.

When people are exposed to situations they react differently, screams and shouts, tears and quietness, laughter and loudness. There are so many reactions and combinations that you never know what's coming. As health care professionals we have the challenging task of dealing with emotions, either over the phone or face to face, we know what's happening to that loved one, we have done what we can....flip that around, we now become the family member, the friend, the partner, how do we react, how should we react?

The mind is wonderful, we store images, memories, thoughts and feelings all pushing to come forward, but we keep them hidden, under control, because we don't like showing our emotions. Unfortunately there are occasions when you cannot control them, something triggers a flood of emotions, usually a build up of smaller issues then BANG the tears, the crying, the screaming.

People are somewhat different in what they want from other's, the person who wants held, but is too frightened to ask, the person who needs to talk but thinks no-one will listen, the lover who needs love, the child who needs attention, but sits alone in the busy school yard, the noisy person too shy to speak to you! All these and more are common, combine these traits with the emotions which are locked away and there is undoubtedly a ticking bomb that is waiting to go off. Think about your friends, family, loved one's, when did you last sit and really listen, when did you hold them tight, when did you last tell them 'I'm here if you want to talk', when did you last say 'I love you, you're special or even hey how are you?'

Take the time to say it, either face to face, over the phone or in a note, email or letter, because you never know what's around the corner, will you get that second chance?

Sunday Morning Breakfast

2006-09-24T12:12:00.000+01:00

Well I am sitting here after the best breakfast in the world.... Bacon, Banana, Brie, sweet waffles, maple syrup and bagels with cranberries and walnuts on the side with fresh coffee and tea.

We were treated to a lovely meal last night with a lovely friend of Kal's and her two kids, then we drank wine and went to see a show in the local village hall and had more wine after the show. We decided to invite R and her two kids around for breakfast this morning, so the kitchen was buzzing and the smell of fresh coffee and bacon was wafting around the house by 0930hrs and then I went for a shower and asked Kal to look after the bacon.... bad move, burn offerings were being pulled out the over, so Kal had to dash to the shop in the next village to get the extra emergency bacon.

So in the end all 7 of us had the best feast going and it all turned out alright in the end. Now the 4 kids are running around burning of the carbohydrates and energy they have just consumed and the 3 of us adults are sipping tea!

How nice :)

I'm back again (part 2)

2006-07-22T17:51:00.000+01:00

Well it is the morning after the wedding, everyone who stayed in the hotel meets up in the restaurant for a champagne breakfast, we all chat and remember the occurrences of the previous day and one by one the group gets smaller as we all drift off home. It was such a nice day; Kal and I set of and stop on the way so that I can take pictures of the countryside for Nursie999 (she forgot her camera the night before). Kal and I arrive back in Edinburgh and he starts packing for college, I head home and get an early night for my next week in Theatres.

Monday morning arrives and I’m back in theatres, I meet up with J and we both head into our allocated anaesthetic room to set up, now by this stage she is expecting some help, so I ask how many patients and what procedures etc so that I can gather up the necessary equipment, we are ready by 0845 so it's coffee and bacon rolls. This is our routine for the remaining two weeks, set up coffee, patients, getting the consultants to sign me off on my various required procedures on the way!

Week 3 arrives and this is my final week to make sure I am happy with my new found practical skills (totally different on a real patient). I had been working at T in the Park over the weekend and chat to some of the staff about the event and the workload etc. The patients start rolling into the 9 main theatres, consultant surgeons and gas men (anaesthetists) all arrive and we begin again, now over my last two weeks I have received comments of praise from some of the staff etc but now it comes to the final day and I have to see the senior Operating Department Practitioner (Manager) and await my feedback, now this guy looks frightening, but he is very pleasant and gives me my certificate of competence and tells me that should I ever wish to come back into HIS department then I am more than welcome!!

Week 4 sees me moving departments and I am now working in the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which is a busy 10 bedded unit with a ward attached when patients are deemed as fit to be prepared for rehab prior to discharge. I arrive and meet up with the Ward Manager (Senior Sister in old terms) who I know fairly well. I am given my tour and follow the ward round, where the new team headed by Prof N reviews the patients.

I have various skills and procedures which I must have signed of as competent in their appliance and I start these straight away by going on the "Bloods round", this basically means taking the requested samples of blood from the patients as discussed in the ward round for analysis at the lab to see how well the patient is responding to treatment. I assist in making beds, toileting the patients and providing general care with the nursing staff.

Day 2 sees me in the theatres following various procedures including a pacemaker insertion and the cardiac catheter labs where patients are taking to have their coronary arteries either expanded with a balloon or strengthened with a wire mesh tube called a stent. Back on the ward after lunch and I am half way through some paperwork when the "Arrest" bleep blips into life, telling me and the other staff that somewhere in the hospital there is a patient in cardiac arrest and we have been summoned to assist in their resuscitation, now not knowing the hospital that well I drop 2 steps behind the Registrar and the staff nurse as we sprint along the corridors to get to the patient. We arrive along with the rest of the "Arrest Team" and start working on the patient, now bearing in mind normally you are lucky to have 3 people helping at an arrest when out on the road I am a bit shocked to see 14 staff (including myself in that number) all around one bed doing various tasks. We are successful in getting this patient breathing and their heart beating and it is decided that the patient does not need to go to CCU (as it turns out to have been a respiratory arrest) so we 3 all leave the rest of the team with the patient and return to the ward to cool down (27 degrees C outside and ward with arrest had not air conditioning!)

Day 3 begins with hand-over and ward round, then down to the catheter lab again for a more challenging procedure on an elderly male, unfortunately it is suspended due to his condition worsening suddenly. The consultant who is carrying out the procedure decides to reschedule for Thursday, as he will then be able to get a colleague to assist if the patient is stable enough. So back to the ward with the patient and watch as his condition bounces up and down like a rubber ball, eventually he stabilises after much hard work on the medical and nursing staff side. We receive a new patient onto the unit and they are clerked in, I assist with bloods and ECG etc and even teach a student nurse how to use the ECG machine!

Day 4 I arrive onto the unit to begin and there are new patients, some of the others were transferred to the attached ward as they were more stable than the new admissions. The unit is now full and there are numerous tests and examinations requiring to be carried out so I ask the Charge Nurse if I can help and I am allocated the bloods and ECG's for all the necessary patients in the unit along with assisting the staff nurse and student I'm working with for that day. Just as lunch arrives "blip blip blip ... Cardiac Arrest on ward..." yes you have it, the arrest bleep so off we go like a well oiled team sprinting into action and sprinting along the vast corridors to the correct ward, we arrive, with the other team members and begin to swing into our allocated roles, orders are barked out and equipment is brought... unfortunately this time we could not save the patient and it is agreed after a considerably long time that we have tried everything and we should now stop. So back to the unit, feeling low, but knowing we did everything we could do for the patient. As we arrive back on the unit the staff nurse and myself go for some water to cool us down as the Dr had remaining on the ward to complete the necessary paperwork certifying death has occurred. Blip blip blip "Cardiac Arrest.... ward...." I look at the staff nurse and she and I are off again, sprinting along catching up with our Dr (who was closer because of the previous callout) and the full team swing into action again, orders are given, equipment brought, more orders, more equipment and with each new item another team member arrives until the room is filled with medical, nursing and associated staff making 19 of us in total, once again I think back to my last arrest on the road when there were two of us!

We are successful this time, the patient is stabilised and transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for further treatment. Back to the unit again, lunch for us and time to relax. The afternoon finds me catching up on my outstanding procedures and getting them signed off by the Charge Nurse. I finish earlier that evening, as it is Kal's end of course drink, which I head down to.

Kal is now 7 weeks into his 9-week technician course; having completed his Ambulance Aid (the care side of things) he now only has his 2-week driving to go... The whole group are found in the bar of the college, I bump into some old friends who are there for various reasons, chat, drink my diet cola, chat some more and then head off as I have an early start the next day. I give Kal a small gift and card to congratulate him and leave him to his party.

Day 5 sees me back on the unit, after having called Kal to make sure he was up, even although unknown to me he had been woke at 6am with the fire alarms, I wished him well and let him get back to his "Long lie"

I now only have one week to go, I walk onto the unit thinking that I will miss the staff, as they have been very friendly and helpful. I am not more than 5 minutes on the unit when the ward manager calls on me and tells me that we have a shout in A&E for a fast track chest pain patient who needed to come up to the unit, so we take the equipment and go down with the Dr. We arrive and the patient is post cardiac arrest, now with classic signs of an MI. The patient is prepared for transfer to the unit and off we go. Back on the unit I am in time for the start of my final ward round and Prof N once again carries this out (as he has for the last 4 days), meeting the patients and putting them at ease with his manner and tone, I am then invited by him to come back to A&E to review a patient with him and the other Specialist Registrar (SpR). We wander down and assess the patient and it is decided that he does not need to come to the unit and can go to the ward for further care.

It is now lunchtime, I have completed all my necessary procedures and had my training record signed off and I bid my farewells to the staff and leave then with the thank you card and a box of chocolates.

Well one more week to go and I will be finished...

I'm back again! (part 1)

2006-07-16T13:04:00.000+01:00

Sorry that I have not updated for a while, but with my paramedic in hospital clinical placements, looking for a new house and making sure Kal is still relaxed (not sure if I'm managing that one) about his course things get a bit hectic.

Anyway, here I am so I will try and fill the gaps...

After completing my college based training for my paramedic qualification I had 5 weeks back on the road as a technician (with paramedic knowledge) I worked mostly nights and this was good because the shifts were such that I was rostered with another Qualified and Experienced Paramedic (State Registered in HPC Terms). My first night back started with a cardiac arrest; which had been an urgent GP call for a male with difficulty in breathing, then a couple of genuinely unwell patients and a male in his 50's having a full blow MI, which eventually caused him to go into cardiac arrest following Thrombolysis in the back of the ambulance (in fact he arrested as we entered the lifts to go to CCU!).

For the other 2 nights we were back and forward to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, dealing with lots of genuine patients and having a good time.

The other 4 weeks seemed to bring out all the genuine patients for me to deal with and my colleagues seemed to be left to pick up the drunks, this was good because it gave me a chance to work with some highly skilled Paramedics and learn from them along with using my new found knowledge to allow me to care for the patients in a more in-depth manner than before.

I received a phone call from the Training Department Queen (Administration officer, she is the woman who sorts your career basically) telling me that she has managed to get a space for me to start my in-hospital clinical placements to finalise my training requirements and that the placement starts on the 26th of June...."Oh I see" is my reaction, I explain that I am on annual leave that week as it's my Birthday and I have a friends wedding (which I am an usher and Kal is the Best Man)... Right she says, well the next placement is probably going to be the end of AUGUST, "I see" I think quickly and offer to cancel my leave for three days if that would be of any help, she says that should be ok and I have to clear it with my station manager. I call into the station that day, speak with my boss, who tells me that's fine and to claim Overtime for the three days I am in hospital on my placement and wishes me luck! Score, I get my annual leave payment and now time and a half and travelling for going into hospital! ££££

My first week of the two on annual leave it taken up mostly with the Royal Highland Show (Big agricultural and food fair etc) over 5 days including a day setting up, I work in the Communications centre, out on patrol and then on the Saturday I work with Kal, now we have only worked together once before and even then it was slightly different, we walk around on patrol and get a patient who is unconscious (through alcohol) and as we arrive I tell Kal that "Your attending" meaning that he is looking after the patient and I will do all the radio work, gathering equipment etc. I do this to see two things (1) how he has developed whilst at the college and (2) if he can cope with sudden change in situations... he performs well, and even when I am taking the piss out of him for his airway management he remains calm. (If all the future Technician's are all as confident and competent as him then Scotland will be a safe place to live).

Having arrived at the hospital for my first day I am shown around the Theatre suites (which is where I will be based for the first 3 out of 5 weeks), I'm introduced as the "Trainee Para-headache" to the staff and then pointed towards the changing room to get into my theatre greens. I meet up with my ODP mentor and stand sheepishly in the background as the patients start arriving. My ODP (J) is brilliant, now she is not full time staff, she is employed by an agency but has worked in the theatre for the last year, she is bubbly, chatty, full of information and so willing to teach, by the end of the first day my head it thumping, but I am already 1/4 of the way through some of the necessary procedures that I must achieve whilst on placement.

I inform J that I am off for two days annual leave later in the week and she notes this on my theatre schedule and gets her senior to amend the master sheet, I have my two days off and enjoy them (down at Ambex which may sound dull but is an international ambulance conference and exhibition) meeting lots of friends and colleagues and on the day of my birthday I am drinking vodka with breakfast!!!

I arrive home and start preparing for the wedding on the Saturday, I go with Kal to the pre wedding friends and family get together in Pathhead (which not two hours previously I had driven through on the way home from Ambex) I am fed lots of food, offered alcohol (which I decline as I am driving) collect the necessary items that still require dropping off at the hotel for the reception and with Kal we take the Groom to be to his hotel for the evening, depositing him at Midnight Kal and I roll back to his and collapse into bed, exhausted and set the alarm for an early start the next day.

The day of the wedding, we wake at 7:30am, roam around the flat getting ready and not really talking as we are still half asleep and the coffee machine has not finished spitting out the black nectar of life yet!

We both have things to do; I drop Kal off in town, head home and get into my kilt, drive back to Kal's and collect him.... WOW how hot does he look in his Purple kilt mmmmmmm, drive to the hotel and collect the Groom, who is looking pale and slightly nervous. Driving around to the church we confirm that rings are with Kal? Check, G you had food? Nope, stop off at shop and buy supplies, Water, Bananas and ready salted crisps etc (all non staining foods since we are all in white shifts and kilts) Onward to the church again, we arrive G and Kal are getting things sorted in the back and myself and the other Usher are discussing tactics, who sits where etc.

Everyone is now in the church and the Bride arrives (Groom is BRC and Bride is St. Andrew's so plenty first aiders in the guests in case of accidents) She looks stunning, slightly nervous as well, but totally stunning. Her father and also her Maid of Honour and bride’s maid’s who are all in lovely purple dresses escort her in. The wedding goes well, the pictures are taken (G is project manager and R the bride is a teacher so everything is set out in time tables and schedules for us to follow). Time for the reception, lovely drive in convoy to the hotel in the Scottish Borders, beautiful weather, lots of alcohol, gorgeous food, more alcohol, Chocolate fountain, great music and ceilidh band. The evening goes on, the buffet comes out.... Bacon rolls Mmmmmm. More music and dancing and drinking. I dance with Kal to a song that summed up how I was feeling (Yeah you know the one boy) and the guests all drift off home. Only a small number of us were booked into the hotel, we all meet in the bar, tired, slightly tipsy (some more than others) and start to unwind with another drink. The Midnight munchies (hunger) arrive around 0130hrs for most of us and we get some pringles from somewhere, just as we open them the manager walks in with a tray of hot bacon rolls.... the pringles are left and the rolls vanish in seconds with moans and groans from the group now demolishing the hot food to soak up all the alcohol.

Welcome back

2006-06-03T18:28:00.000+01:00

I know that I have not been on in ages, well it feels like that anyway, but I have been quite busy with my life....

I have just finished my second week of shifts after coming back from the Ambulance college and on my first set of nights I had two patients who arrested on me (One was a GP Urgent call) and two patients who have met the Pre-Hospital Thrombolysis checklist for their on-going MI (Heart Attack). Now since I have not completed my hospital placements or received my state registration I cannot practice as a paramedic yet, this leaves you in a strange "Limbo" you have all the knowledge but are not allowed to use your skills until all the boxes are ticked. I have been lucky however as I have managed to work with fully qualified paramedic's and this has been interesting as I am now able to use my skills "Remotely" through them :)

I have just got to wait my turn now to do my placement and then I can apply for my state registration and be let loose on the public of Scotland.....

Oh poor them ;)

Well after all the hard work and study....

2006-05-13T19:40:00.000+01:00

I have as you know been away for the last 6 week (1080hrs classroom time) studying towards gaining my Paramedic qualification.

It has been an interesting time and there has been many highs and lows along the way, may late nights of studying and early mornings of not knowing anything from the night before.

Well it has finally come to a close, after 5 weeks of preperation and study, practice and sweating late into the night over the books I sat my final Module I (Paediatrics & Obstetric) assessments, which also included some stuff from Module G (Cardiology & Airway) and stuff from module H (Trauma).

Monday of week 6 starts with some mock assessments, written and multi choice and then a practical skill station, the Tuesday is much the same, early finish to facilitate for some last minute panic study and then comes Wednesday.....

0845hrs - "You have 30 minutes to complete your Paediatric multi choice paper...good luck"

0920hrs - "You now have 30 minutes to complete your Obstetric multi choice paper....once again good luck!"

1030hrs - You now have 2hrs to complete your written papers covering Paeds, Obs, Trauma and a General question, please ensure you answer all the questions or you will automatically fail!...Good luck"

1330hrs, after lunch it's back to the practical mocks to ensure you are up to speed on skills for the final assessment on Thursday.

Thursday morning seeing us all in the restaurant of the college for breakfast you would think we were all "Dead men walking" we sit quietly, not saying much, staring down at our food, not hungry but knowing that we should all eat something.

0900hrs and so it begins, I am first for my Paediatric skill station, which comprises of two cases my first is a lethargic, floppy 6 mth old who is "Unwell" not feeding and turns out to be a meningicoccal septicaemia baby who needs airway management, supported ventilations, IV access and Benzylpenicillin before the crew arrive to back me up.... oh yeah I forgot to say I was meant to be single crewed!

My second patient was a 5 yr old in Cardiac Arrest, who as per protocol required airway management, breathing and circulatory support along with IV access, blood glucose checks, capiliary refill and fluids and rapid transport to hospital, however I was still single crewed and had to wait on the responding ambulance..... oh the joys of assessments!

I was last to go in for my Obstetric assessment and this was once again, two patient skill stations, the first was a 35yr old who was in labour with her 5th child and had a history of difficult and fast labours!!! The baby in this was a breech birth, the baby then required to be resuscitated and my second scenario was a 17 yrs old with a cord prolapse. Both the skill station's went well, but no one felt totally confident in their and I was definately one who felt least confident.

Friday Morning was the day which we found out which one had passed, but since we had a small group the course director decided to tell us all on the Thursday afternoon our fate!!!

We well all summonded into the class after coffee break and one by one our names were read out..... Scotsmedicman PASS...... What?!?!?!? I passed I ACTUALLY PASSED YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

So there we go, I am now licensed to kill... erm save in some many more ways!!! 007 watch out!

Module G - Cardiology & Airway Managment

2006-04-22T09:35:00.000+01:00

Well it has been a while since I have communicated with you all, I can only apologise for this, but I have been studying and working hard. I have now completed my 3rd week and had my end of module exams....

The 3rd week of module G is a blur of activity, you start on the Monday with "Mock" exams to get you in the right mind frame for the written exams, this goes on until the Tuesday afternoon when you have now completed your written and multi choice "Mock" papers you are then put through practical assessments that are made to be difficult, awkward and stressful so that you are thinking in the right way to face your final practicals. Wednesday arrives before you know it and suddenly you are faced with 3 hours of written exams, this includes an hour to complete the multi choice aspect of the exam. Wednesday afternoon you feel totally deflated, washed out and thinking that you know nothing. You have to stop dwelling about your exams and now focus on the forthcoming practicals on the Thursday.

I had a break from the stress of the college on Wednesday evening when I was "kidnapped" and taken to Peebles to have a night out of the college and a meal with Kal and a colleage Ms A(who has recently completed her paramedic course and understands the stress). The meal is lovely, we sit and chat, go for a walk along the river and meet another colleage who is out walking his dog, we chat and then head back to the college for coffee. On arriving at the college, we grab a coffee and sit with the wife of one of my training officers (she has popped into the college to wish me good luck, as she is a friend and ex college of mine) we all chat and then Kal and Ms A bid me good luck and head home. I so want to be going with them, but unfortunately I have to stay and do my practical assessments......

THURSDAY ARRIVES!!!!!!!

We are all in the restaurant for breakfast, non of us eat much as our stomach's are churning, we walk strangely quietly in a single line to the classroom (if you were an outsider looking in you would think that we were going to the execution chamber), we arrive and are greeted by our instructor (0845hrs) and are briefed on the running order of the day, we are given our places for the assessments (I am the duty student and have responsibility to ensure that all the equipment is set out properly, this had been done at 0825hrs and checked by our instructor) and then he leaves. We all walk again in single file to the waiting area (which is the coffee lounge) and sit.... I am first and at 0905hrs I walk with an Officer to the Syndicate A room for my Airway assessment, I meet the Consultant Anaethnetist and start my 20 minutes of hell... I talk, I use the equipment with ease, I rectify problems thrown at me, I even begin to show off.... I think to myself "I'm good, I know this and I'm going to prove to you that I should pass!!!!" I finish the 20 minutes and I thank the assessment team and head out of the room back to the coffee lounge.

I arrive downstairs and enter my time on the sheet (We are required to sign in and out of the assessments to ensure that we are all given the same timescale and no one is grilled for any length of time), I tell my colleages that I am going for a walk around the building and with this I am off, walking the wooden area, the driveway the road around the college and then back into the college. I arrive back and there is conversations starting about the cardiology station, which I am last to go into, so I avoid this as I do not want to know about the 3rd degree heart block and Asystolic arrest scenario that the other student received as their assessment.

SCOTSMEDICMAN!

I am summoned to the cardiology station for my final assessment, now I have been waiting for nearly 2 1/2hrs and my stomach is doing the twist, I have been to the toilet 12 times for nervous peeing (maybe all the coffee didn't help either)....
I walk in, there is a dummy lying on the floor for my resuscitation assessment, and the Officer who escorted me in introduces me to the Cardiology Nurse who is doing my assessment. We chat and then she explains my scene, I go into auto pilot, once again showing that I know my stuff, I then deal with the second scenario which is a male with central chest pain and managed this, talking constantly, stating the correct dosage of drugs and explaining how this is calculated etc. I leave the assessment and feel confident, but know that I could have done better, I stumbled over my words when it came to rhythm recognition and didn't come across as confident as I would have liked to have been.... oh well that's it over with.

We all go for lunch, still not really eating much, start to chat and end up doing post mortum's on the scenarios we were all given. We go back to class and sit and wait, and wait, and wait. Eventually we are allowed to go to our rooms or leave the building and are told that we will get our results on friday morning.

Thursday night we are all at the bar in the college, some drinking more than others, still lots of talk about the assessments.

Friday has arrived, we are all sitting in the classroom and one by one are taken away for our results and feedback, no one is confident, no one is sure, but the smiles are laughter of relief start as one by one people start coming back in.... then it is my turn I am second last, as I stand up to go through, my colleague who is after me is up and out of the room, he takes my place HE JUMPED THE QUEUE!!! BUGGER!!! oh well so I sit and wait again, he returns, quiet, head down, we all think he is joking, but unfortunately he has failed.... It hits us hard, SOMEONE IN THE GROUP FAILED! It is my turn now, I walk the 5 feet from our class to the office opposite and it feels like an age to arrive. I knock, wait and then hear "Enter" I go in, The Officer who is giving the feedback is sitting head down, I think "Oh my god I'm next" He looks up from his mountain of paper and stands up pushes out his hand and breaks into a smile and congratulates me, now my brain is going slow and it takes a moment to understand, he said "Congratulations" OH YEAH I HAVE PASSED!!!! He explains my results, which are much higher than I expect and he goes on to tell me that I have been given a commendation for my airway as the consultant was so impressed with my knowledge and skills.

I return to the class, break the news and we all relax, we feel sorry for our colleague who is now leaving us, but are happy that we have passed. I start sending messages to everyone telling them the news and my phone is just about able to cope with the volume of texts I receive with various messages of congratulation.

Ah home time, I drive up the road from the college and think well only 3 more weeks to go and that means 2 more assessments!!

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

1 week down

2006-04-07T21:30:00.000+01:00

Well as it says, I have just completed my first week at the SAC (Scottish Ambulance College) on my IHCD paramedic course, The first week as you can imagine begins with some introduction to the course ahead, so on Monday morning we are completing the necessary paperwork that tells you that should you leave the Service they can claim the £6,000 costs associated with your residential aspect of your training!!!!

I waken up on Monday, full of good intentions with regards to going to the gym, but I then try and get out of the lovely bed in my room to go to my en-suite bathroom and notice that I have problems breathing, I feel sore and generally ache all over, I look in the mirror and see that I have developed cold sores and my nose is now streaming like a flowing tap, Joy I have a cold before I even start my course, oh well only paperwork I think..... Boy was I wrong.

It is now mid morning and we are starting to look at intubation (passing a tube down a patient's windpipe to secure it and assist in their breathing), after lunch we learn needle cricothyrotomy (putting the biggest needle you can find into someone's neck to help them breath) and finally chest decompression (Once again putting the biggest needle into someone's chest to help re-inflate their collapsed lung) and this is only the first day........

For the rest of the week we go over various different aspects of the above skills, sit multi choice exams and short written papers and start to look at the drugs involved in dealing with a patient who is in cardiac arrest (or Advance Cardiac Life Support - ACLS for short). Finally today we get our test results and I am "Coming along nicely" and I'm to "keep up the good work with the practical scenarios" I feel a bit more happy tonight, knowing that I am on the right tracks and hopefully will still be there in another 5 weeks!

Ah well I am off to relax and remember the lovely italian meal that I have just had with Kal, Oh it is nice to be home for the weekend and to see him, oh and to be taken out for a lovely meal by him :D

I am still alive

2006-03-22T22:00:00.000Z

Just a quick message to say that yes I am still alive and well, just studying for my forth-coming paramedic course....2nd of April, I never knew that adrenaline was brown!

Oh well back to the books

Throw the stone into the water and watch the ripples!

2006-02-22T20:09:00.000Z

And it has hit the papers, next the fan!

Paramedic Interview

2006-02-20T15:12:00.000Z

Well today was the big day, 1110hrs in Galashiels, I arrived and waited patiently until I was called in, there on the panel was a Station Officer (Area Service Manager for A&E) from Edinburgh, the Training Manager for my Division and a Anaesthetic Consultant sitting behind the desk, I swallowed hard, took a deep breath and tried to relax as I sat down. The interview lasted 20 minutes (only scheduled for 10) lots of questions from them all and then it was my turn to ask them some questions.... I asked about the academic aspect of the paramedic course and will the service be going towards external recognition from universities for the training, I wanted to know what the service stance was in regards to staff looking to enhance their knowledge in relation to their continued personal / professional development and what support did the service offer to these staff.

The Training Manager told me that they would be calling all the candidates later today...

Well 1500hrs and "Ring Ring" Hi SMM it's Training Manager (aka GOD), I just want to say congratulations and I would like to offer you a place on the 2nd of April 2006 course!!!!! Is that ok? "Gulp" Eh yeah I think that should be ok.... (SILENTLY SCREAMING YEAH YEAH OH YES inside).

Oh well better dust down the books again!!!

Agenda for Change (New pay scheme in NHS)

2006-02-20T14:51:00.000Z

Well I am sure that some of you will have received your A4C letters outlining your new salary.... for those of your who are not up to speed with the whole A4C fiasco it has taken nearly 3 years for the Service and unions to agree the terms and conditions of this new deal, there has been rumours flying all ways in regards to the payments that staff will receive and how staff will be better off because they are now getting paid for working "Unsocial" hours (between 7pm and 7am Mon to Fri and all day Sat and Sunday), disturbed meal breaks and public holidays. Well the big day arrived on Saturday and the brown stuff well and truly hit the rotating thing at a great speed... basically as a qualified Technician within the SAS you can expect to earn £22,271.00 basic salary, with my weekend hours I get a further £495.56 that gives me a grand total of £22,855.65 now that sounds not bad so you would expect that the A4C payment would match or better this.... Well my new basic salary is £19,248.00 YES that is £3,023.00 less than what I currently earn, once I receive my "Unsocial" payments which because I am relief is calculated on a 3 monthly period unlike the permanent board members who receive 25% flat rate payment, I come out with 17% which equates to £3,272.16 giving me a new grand total of £22,520.16, now for those of you who can count that is £335.40 less per year than what I currently earn so I have that difference protected. This means that I am no better off and potentially I will lose out if my "unsocial" % changes in the next 3-month reference period!!!!

We have also been offered a £250 per year payment for having our meals disturbed along with £5 per shift regardless of how many times we are disturbed, this means that technically you could work 12 hours and have 5 or 6 disturbed attempts at a break or no break at all and only receive £5!!! One of my colleagues worked it out that they would get 80 pence per shift if they continue to have their meal disturbed at the current level!! (Can't find anywhere that sells replacement meals for 80p)

As you can gather there is a lot of unhappy staff within the service at the moment and it seems that the unions have taken 3 years to negotiate a pay cut for Technicians!!!!

Thanks guys

28C01

2006-02-14T19:08:00.000Z

Well this is the code that means you are going to a patient who is "Not Alert" following a CVA (Stroke).

So we arrive and because of difficulty in parking, I walk to the house with my oxygen and response bag and my colleague follows eventually with the defibrillator, once he can safely park the Ambulance without drivers thinking that they have the right to totally ignore all rules of the road and common courtesy. As I walk towards the house the patient's son tells me "I think my Dad is now dead!" so in I go and true to his word the patient was lying slumped in his wheelchair not breathing and no pulse.

I get the patient on the floor and start my CPR protocol, securing this 78 yr old mans airway with a plastic curved tube called an oro-pharyngeal airway (OPA), breathing for him with a Bag and Mask connected to my oxygen and start jumping up and down on his chest. As I am doing this my colleague walks in and quickly connects the defib to the patient and we find that he is Asystolic (flat line) so my colleague (who is a paramedic) confirms that I have a good airway for the patient and begins to cannulate (place a small plastic sheath and needle into a vein) him, we give some cardiac drugs and continue with CPR, because of the tightness in the house, we decide not to intubate (pass a larger tube into the patient's airway) until we are in the vehicle. Following this decision my colleague gets the son to help him gather further equipment and returns, but whilst my colleague is away the patient decided to change his heart rhythm and I am able to deliver an electric shock to stun his heart (defibrillate) into a rhythm that is able to sustain life! With one shock his heart starts beating normally and he slowly starts breathing!!!

Once in the Ambulance we intubate him to secure his airway properly as he was still not breathing sufficiently on his own, we blue light him into hospital and are met by the full resuscitation team in AE and hand over his care to them.

Upon cleaning and clearing I pop back in to check on his condition and his heart is still beating, he is breathing with less assistance and he is being prepared to be moved for further investigations.... as I walk out the Consultant who was looking after him says "Well done" now I know that it doesn't sound much but when you have worked as hard as my colleague and I did it is nice to feel as if you have at least given the patient and his family a chance!

Will see how he is getting on tomorrow and keep you all updated.... if you want?

Oh that's got to hurt

2006-02-06T23:09:00.000Z

Well I was working 7-7 day shift at a neighbouring station today and it was your run of the mill calls, elderly patients who had fallen and possibly fractured their hips etc.

Well all that was to change, at 1330hrs we get the do do do doop noise as we are pulling into Livi to give the outside of the Ambulance a quick clean, so pulling back out of the wash bay we are heading out of the station lights and sirens going to a call at a local industrial estate for a 'Male hit by sheet metal' we arrive to be waved in the direction of the patient, who is lying on the floor beside a very large machine, in obvious pain, but still fully conscious.

I am driving for this half of the shift so my partner goes to assess the patient whilst I gather some extra information from the patients colleagues. My partner shouts to get another crew with a paramedic for pain relief, I head back and gather some further equipment and call up to the EMDC at the same time requesting the second 'paramedic' crew and head back.

Our patient is given entonox for the pain before we even begin touching him, but we can see that this will not work that well and hope that the second crew are not that far from us.

Now the patient is a male in his 30's who has been working at a machine when some sheet metal struck him in both the legs just above his ankles, this caused one of them to snap and the other leg ended up being fractured (#) and the foot was rotated 180 degrees, causing the bones in that leg to tear through the skin.....

The 'paramedic' crew arrived and gave the patient more stronger pain relief, set up fluids because of the blood loss and shock and we then had to gently move the fractured ankle into box splint so that we could then move this leg off the one underneath which was the rotated open fracture (more serious due to the possibility of loosing the foot if the blood supply is restricted beyond the site of the injury).

Once we had the # ankle supported and moved out the way we could then see the full extent of the injury and begin to manipulate it back into line (we had to remember and turn it the right way!!), now the feeling of crepitus is not a nice one and I have only felt it once before, but today I was supporting this limb as my colleagues applied traction above and below and we all turned together, straightening the patients knee out and making sure the foot was pointing in the same direction as his knee, my hands were under the fracture, holding on the sterile dressings to control the bleeding and supporing the bones and I can honestly say if you want to feel crepitus then get some chicken bones, snap them and then rub them together in your hands!!

Once our both the legs were stabilised and the patient was feeling the effects of the pain relief medication he was lifted onto the trolley bed in the Ambulance and the 'paramedic' crew transported him to hospital, leaving me and my colleague to tidy and re-stock our vehicle and reponse bag because we found out that the 'paramedic' had used all our equipment! Thanks mate!

Oh well I guess that the patient will now be lying in a hospital bed, possibly following surgery today and looking forward to a fairly lenghty recovery process, well at least we managed to do something good for a change :)

Paramedic practical

2006-01-31T15:58:00.000Z

Well I have just returned from the one of the most stressful set of assessments that you would want to sit during an afternoon. There were two, one was a medical and the other a cardiac arrest scenario. I completed both and have found out that I have PASSED!!!! So now I have to attend an interview with the Training Manager, Training Officer and Hospital Consultant to see if I am a suitable candidate to complete the paramedic training course.

Fingers crossed!

YIPEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! :D

Can't sleep

2006-01-28T23:56:00.000Z

Well here I am, sitting in my dressing gown, Kal is in bed, fast asleep and I am wide awake, I can't sleep... I don't know if it was all the coffee, the nerves about my forthcoming paramedic exam (2nd part) or what, but I just can't manage to close my eyes.

I have felt this before, but tonight, no matter what I do I just end up looking at the ceiling of my room, Kal is there beside me, warm, cosy, all sleepy and there I am turning in bed fighting with the pillows feeling all alone. I don't want to disturb him as he is teaching in the morning maybe I am overtired. I finished nights on Friday morning and managed to get a good sleep I then met up with Kal and two other friends and went to laser quest then bowling, via pizza hut for something to eat. It was a lovely night I was driving so I didn't drink, everyone else was indulging and then it was an early rise this morning as I was teaching on the First Responder Course in Penicuik.

I arrived at 0845hrs in Penicuik with Kal in tow, more rough than I because of the mix of red wine and beer. The class finished at 1430hrs, popped over to my folks to visit then back to the flat for tea, eventually sat down at 2030hrs and watched some TV before making pudding at 2100hrs, coffee was flowing and now here I am at 0005hrs on Sunday morning wide awake and feeling totally fed up and probably slightly jealous that Kal can climb into bed and within 5 minutes of his head hitting the pillow is breathing heavily and off deeply in sleep!!!

Oh well may I will try a horlicks to see if that helps, but knowing my luck it wont!

Let your fingers do the tapping!

2006-01-23T07:49:00.000Z

You should check this out, it is fun... Song Tapper, it is where you can find the name of that tune that is stuck in your head.

Now everyone knows that is a good idea!

NIght shifts

2006-01-22T15:08:00.000Z

Well I am working the full weekend nights this week and it has been a fairly eventful set of shifts so far.

Friday Night:

It started out quietly, with our first call being that of an anaphylactic female, she was treated with epinephrine, salbutamol and oxygen and transported to hospital for further care. Our next call was some 2 1/2hrs later, now this is unusual for a Friday night, but it sometimes happens.

The calls started to pick up and the night started getting busier, we were sent to stand by at one of the designated dispatch points and after being there for a whole 15 minutes we were winging our way to a reported hit and run on a busy street near by, 4 minutes later we are pulling up to be met by a group of excited people standing around a male who is lying on his back with facial (minor) injuries. The Police quickly arrive on mass and we quickly assess and treat the patient, placing him on a rescue board and securing his head with a rigid collar and head blocks, once he was secured he was taken into the back of the Ambulance and was examined further to see if he had any other injuries. This patient was lucky and he had relatively minor injuries. We transported him to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary due to the mechanisms of his injury.

We were heading back after doing some 999 calls in Edinburgh and stopped to fuel up the Ambulance, as I was in paying for the fuel my colleague signalled that we had a call, this time it was a car that had left the road and rolled down an embankment landing on its roof with a report of 5 people trapped. When we arrived we were the second crew on scene and quickly found out from the fire service that there were only two trapped and a third patient in the back of one of the fire engines, my colleague went to check the person who was not trapped and I started to gather together all the necessary equipment for our trapped male patient.

Now picture the scene, dark slippery embankment with clio sized car on its roof, 8 firemen, myself and one paramedic all in the car with the two patients, it was like a Guinness book of records challenge for how many people you could get into one car... The male was eventually extricated from the car, placed onto a rescue board and with collar and straps etc all applied carried out and up the embankment to the warmth of our waiting Ambulance where we did a head to toe check to rule out any other obvious injuries.

The female was removed in much the same fashion and was taken to the other vehicle for a check over and she and the patient in the fire engine were re-united and both transported to hospital. Our patient was taken to the same hospital, I however did not travel, because the patient was requiring paramedic interventions en route (pain relief etc) I jumped on with the third vehicle which had arrived (bringing my replacement paramedic) and LS (paramedic) travelled with my colleague and patient.

Now by this stage it was 0545hrs and I was wet and muddy, once clearing on scene and updating the EMDC I was asked if we were able to do an urgent call or if we wanted our now long forgotten meal break.... as you can guess I plumped for the meal break so that I could get cleaned and warmed up.

Saturday Night:

This started out once again with us being sent out at the start of the shift for a diabetic male who had taken unwell whilst driving his car, when we arrived he was starting to respond to the chocolate that his father had given him, his blood sugars were still low so he was given an injection to raise his levels and we transported him to Livingston (St. John's Hospital) for further care.

Back on station for our vehicle check and once this is complete coffee!

The following calls were all relatively small in comparison to the night of car accidents, we did still manage to get a call that took us into Edinburgh and we were then captured for a couple of calls, one was a male found confused and wandering around in his underwear in the common stair well of his block of flats. We transported him to hospital to get him examined and to see if they could find out what had happened to him, as he was not showing any physical injuries.

We eventually got back on station at about 0400hrs and had our second break (tea and toast) and then got the chance to clean the outside of the vehicle and re stock for the day shift coming in. We were lucky that we did not get called out again and managed to finish on time this morning....

Oh well only one more to go then off until Tuesday NIGHTSHIFT!

What seat first?

2006-01-13T20:57:00.000Z

This is the question I pose when working with a colleague for the first shift, it means what role am I fulfilling for the first part of the shift (work 12 hrs normally and therefore you change role halfway with your colleague to give them / get a break).

I asked that question today and was told, "You are in the back first" = I am in the attendant seat and have responsibility of the patient care. So it started well, kettle on after the vehicle being checked stocked and made ready for the road. Settled down in the reclining leather (ish) chairs and waiting on the phone to go... and waited and waited and waited.... zzzzz Ring ring! SMM, Nee Naw station (cheers Nee Naw for the noise!) It was the Police looking for information in regards to a call a few days ago, unfortunately I was not able to help but gave him the number of someone who could (The EMDC :) ). 1000hrs and the phone goes again, it is the EMDC Dispatcher booking us off for our meal break... porridge for both of us for our breakfast.... zzzzz 1130hrs Ring ring, Hi I have an urgent call (this is a call where a Doctor has been out (normally) to see the patient and has placed a time scale on them being into hospital for their care). Finished this call and cleared now in Edinburgh in the Western Triangle (You always get caught for a call when you clear at the Western General Hospital) and we are given the RTB = Return To Base Station, just as we are pulling out ... Do do doop! Another urgent call this time to go to Stirling Royal Hospital with a patient who is unwell and needs to be in hospital within 1hr.

We collect the patient, get her settled into the Ambulance and off to the hospital, upon arrival in the unit we are met with what looks like a scene from Casualty with patients lying all over on trolleys, sitting in chairs and relatives walking about, we are eventually spoken to by the nurse in charge of the bed in the hospital and she advised that our patient has a bed in a ward, now you would think this is good news and it is but not for us, we have to because of the lack of trolleys request permission from our EMDC to take the patient to the ward. This is not policy and when we advise the nurse of this she has a lot to say about the policy, we listen and then take our patient to the ward, explaining to the family what is happening.

We clear and are now returned to station for our second meal break (now 1530hrs), just as we pull up outside the station door Do do doop! An emergency call for a female who, when we arrive it turns out has been unwell for 4 months and decided that she did not want to wait any longer for her Doctor to refer her to hospital for an out-patient review of her chronic condition. We clear (now 1645hrs) and back for our second attempt of our second meal break.

Back in the station on the recliner again and just relaxing when (1800hrs) Ring ring.. Hi I have a fire call with persons reported inside.. Off we go again lights and sirens going, we arrive and park behind the 3 Fire engines and 2 police cars and make our way to the patient, who is a female not wanting to travel, we check her out and she still refuses to travel so we clear. Back in the vehicle we think 1830hrs and still a chance to finish on time, just as we get out of the village Do do doop, the same address that we have just been at, we call the EMDC to confirm if we are still to attend, they advise that a second patient has been found, so around the round about and back again.

When we arrive we are told that there is now a male with difficulty breathing, we check him and offer to take him to hospital for a further follow up and with this we also offer the original female patient the same again, this time she agrees so with two patients on-board we set off to the hospital. We eventually arrived back at station 45 minutes late and our colleagues were out in the spare, oh well hope they have a better quieter night!

I survived!

2006-01-08T15:09:00.000Z

Well my first night back on after my accident and I managed to survive and not have a panic attack or prange the Ambulance. I was working with a female paramedic who, informed me at the start of my shift that I would be driving second half of the 12 hrs, which is what I had done on the shift when I had crashed. She was considerate enough to ask if this would be ok after we had checked the vehicle and had our cuppa.

I did have a few moments of ...."Oh my god I remember this bit... this is where..." and "Are the wheels sliding again?" but I am happy to say that I survived and hope that this will be the last time I feel like this when driving on the Motorway, but I am not sure if it will be......

This is what saved my life....

2006-01-08T15:06:00.000Z

This is what saved my life....
Originally uploaded by scotsmedicman.

You can't see it that well, but this is the wire barrier that stopped me from shooting across into the other cariageway.

Wingardium Leviosa?!?!?

2006-01-08T14:58:00.000Z

Wingardium Leviosa?!?!?
Originally uploaded by scotsmedicman.

This is the new moving and handling equipment, swish and flick!

Thanks for not hitting me....

2006-01-05T15:21:00.000Z

That is the thoughts that were going through my head as I was being strapped to the spinal board yesterday morning, you may wonder why I was think this or even in fact why I was being strapped to a board, but it was because I was involved in a collision in my Ambulance returning back from a call as I lost control on the un-treated M9 motorway, spun 3 times on ice and collided with the crash barrier causing the passenger door to blow open and nearly ejecting my partner, who luckily was wearing his seat belt.

This all occurred at 0647hrs, 13 minutes before we were due to finish our night shift.

As we were sitting in the Ambulance we both called our respective “loved ones” to let them know what had happened, this was after we had placed a priority call to the EMDC informing them what had happened and that we were now facing on-coming traffic, in the outside lane of the motorway with only our roof blue lights working (Not very good considering the freezing fog gave you a visibility of 100 meters!)

The EMDC Dispatcher asked if anyone was injured and if we needed another Ambulance etc, we were both shook up and sore so we confirmed that this would be appropriate and that we urgently needed the Police to make the area safe. After several more phone and radio calls the cavalry arrived in the form of the Day shift at our station (I was never so glad to see the blue lights and flashing head lights of an Ambulance). They parked in the Fend-off position to protect us, put on all their outside lights to try and illuminate the scene and prevent any further vehicles nearly colliding with us. Whilst we were sitting waiting on the crew arriving we had witnessed 4 vehicles stomping along at high speed in our lane, heading straight for us and only noticing at the last moment that there was in fact a smashed up Ambulance facing them, they all managed to swerve to avoid us, both my shift partner and I had various moments of terror seeing this happening and we both discussed which would be safer, staying with the vehicle, belted in or getting onto either the hard shoulder or central reservation and taking the chance of being hit or aggravating any possible injuries further…. We decided to sit tight and pray for a quick response.

Once the first crew arrived, it was apparent that both of us were going to get the full treatment and would be collared and boarded as a precaution and because we were both complaining of neck / back and I had right shoulder pain. The second crew arrived and I was transferred to their vehicle for further care, whilst my colleague was secured to a spinal board, checked over and transported to Stirling Royal AE (Because we were facing that direction on the Motorway). I was given the same treatment, collar applied to my neck, placed on a board, blood pressure, ECG and Oxygen levels monitored, I even trusted my colleague who was attending to me to cannulate my arm and give me some stronger pain relief for my shoulder. I was taken on a strange journey to AE, when I say strange it felt strange because I was the patient, I was the one lying there being cared for and not being able to do anything but just lie there. When I arrived at AE I was undressed, examined and x-rays were taken, I had the AE Consultant looking after me, which was comforting, as I knew I was in very safe hands.

Throughout the entire process my Station Officer (Area Service Manager) was floating between me and my injured colleague seeing if we were ok and if we needed anyone contacted. My flat mate was the first to arrive as Kal had called her telling her what had happened and she offered to come to the AE until he arrived (Because the M9 was now completely closed and she could come via the back roads until Kal arrived by train). Kal arrived fairly soon after I had been assessed and was with me before I went for x-rays, My Station Officer went to my colleague to keep him company until his wife arrived. We were both given the all clear after our x-ray results had been checked and were discharged with information re ongoing care for neck / back pain.

I went home, via the station to collect my car, had a very long hot shower and a big mug of tea and went with Kal to Edinburgh to visit my folks, I dropped him off at his work (for which he was now 5 hours late) and spent the rest of the day with my parents being pampered and fed numerous cups of tea etc.

I met Kal after his work (for which he had stayed late to catch up on the stuff he should have done during his time in AE with me) and we had a lazy night in front of the TV with a Chinese take away and that is when it hit me, what had happened, what might have happened and how it could have turned out horribly different. I was glad to be safe in his arms, maybe a bit sore, but still safe….

The vampire shifts...

2006-01-03T07:18:00.000Z

Well I have been the lucky one and over the Christmas and New Year period I had the pleasure of working NIGHTS.

I know that I should be happy because I got to go up North to see Kal and his family and friends between the shifts finishing on Tuesday 27th Dec and starting again on Sat 31st of December, and I am, it was a very pleasant trip north, the food was good, the alcohol was even better but most of all the company was amazing. I come from a family where less is sometimes more... i.e. SMM Mum "How has your day been SMM?" Me "Oh ok busy with calls etc, managed to get finished on time so that is a bonus" SMM Mum "Oh that is good, so what's your plans for your days off?" and so it goes on. Kal and his family on the other had have discussions that go off on tangents and force your brain to actually work and it is wonderful seeing how they interact as a unit, the discussions, the body language, the knowing.... I find it challenging at times to keep up with the two or three conversations that are happening at once (Yes I know men can't multi-task very well...I am slightly better than most I think because I have to at work), but it is enjoyable, fulfilling and enthralling to be part of this and you are definitely made to feel welcome with your comments, but be prepared to explain why you think something, or clarify your answer to the questions that are being posed.

I always look forward to my time up there because of the atmosphere and the people along with the beauty of the place and especially because I get to spend lazy time with Kal.

Festive Tears

2005-12-21T20:56:00.000Z

Today I was working as part of a double crew with a female Paramedic, well our day started out well, we had just finished out our tea and coffee and the phone went … it was the Dispatcher asking for us to go out and stand-by at a tactical deployment point (TDP). Now TDPs are designed to allow us to reach areas within a specific time scale, which, because of the distance from the station we would not normally be able to achieve if an emergency call were to come in.

So we arrive at the TDP and settle down, turning on the TV in the room and watching some daytime TV. The mobile rings and we are allocated onto an emergency call for a patient with chest pains, off we go, lights and sirens going. We arrive and handle the patient, carrying out a 12-lead ECG and making the patient more comfortable before heading into Accident and Emergency.

After clearing we are sent back to station, where we re-stock the equipment and drugs used and settle down to chat to some colleagues, the emergency phone rings again and we are off, this time for an elderly female who has fallen in the house. Upon our arrival we find the house secured and hunt to see if we can gain access to the property but to no avail. Just as we are about to request the Police arrive to assist in gaining entry a neighbour tells us that the patient has a key safe, which contains a spare front door key, we find the safe, get the code number from the patient (after shouting through the letter box again) and make our entry into the house. We are met by an elderly female, who is stuck on the floor with no obvious injuries, we check her for any pain / injury etc but after giving her a quick head to toe we assist her into a chair. We settle the lady down and make sure that she is happy to stay at home until her home help arrives and after getting the necessary paperwork completed we bid goodbye to the woman and return to our vehicle. We advise the EMDC that we are clear and they tell us to return for our lunch break (11am).

After our break we are allocated onto another emergency call and whilst en route the Dispatcher advises that this call is possibly for a child in cardiac arrest, we arrive within 3 minutes of the call being allocated to us and hear screams coming from the house that tells us this is not just a child who is fitting or has been holding their breath.

We are met by a distraught neighbour who tells us that her mum is a nurse in a Glasgow A&E department and that she is in the house with the mother and child, we walk in with all our equipment to be met by a hysterical female who is begging us to help her child, the child who is lying on the sofa, still and doll like, the neighbour’s mother is looking at us willing us to do something and we do, we take over from her, check the child and discover that this 2 year old boy is lifeless, not breathing and has unfortunately been dead for some time.

This is the worst part of the job, telling a relative that there is nothing we can do for their loved one. It is especially hard when it is a child who has died, now this is only my second death of a child and the last one was still viable; unfortunately this was not the case in this call.

Our focus of patient care moved from the child to the mother, the mother who is screaming and sobbing and begging for us to help, we comfort her and tell her that we unfortunately cannot help her child. My colleague is consoling the mother and I make my way to the vehicle to set in motion all the necessary support mechanisms (Police attendance, Family Doctor etc). The Police arrive soon after us and start with their procedures, by this stage the Gran and Great Gran-mother arrive and I meet them in the hallway of the house and break the news that they are not wanting to hear, they go and comfort their daughter / grand daughter.

My colleague and I console and comfort the three women, whilst maintaining a professional image, even although we both want to walk away and cry.

Some time passes and because of the nature of the call, we agree with the Police to transport the mother and deceased child to hospital (this is not normal but because the mother was not wanting to be separated from her child we gained authorisation from the Duty Manager in the EMDC). Upon our arrival a Doctor and Nurse met us at the doors to the Accident and Emergency unit and take the mother, deceased child and gran as a group to a relative room to allow them some time to come to terms with what is happening. We hand over the care of this group to the staff and went to our vehicle to sit and review what had just occurred over the last 90 minutes. We were comforted by two of our colleagues, who spoke to us in the vehicle and when we were returned to the station we were booked out of the system for a stress break. This is when it really hit us, my colleague and I went our separate ways and broke down, the release of emotion was overwhelming it turned us both into walking crying wrecks, we were consoled by our colleagues and station manager and given time to reflect and discuss the call.

I am sitting here, some 9hrs on still numb but I know that I will, over the next few days, cry whilst thinking about the call… I cannot imagine how the family are feeling just now and I don’t know that I would want to feel the emotions that they are experiencing.

All I can hope is that they know that we did everything we could for them. Unfortunately I know it was not enough.

God bless.

SMM

Exams

2005-12-21T19:59:00.000Z

Well as you will know if you have read my blog, I am not a big fan of exams and I have recently completed my finals for my Technician qualification. So I can now put the prospect of exams to the back of my mind.... NO instead I decide to put myself through the stress of the Paramedic Pre Entry exams. Now these are two papers, one multiple choice (MCQ) and the other consisted of 5 short written answers, now these sound simple but they are in fact 5 questions with 2 or 3 sub questions in each and you have to answer all the questions within 2 hours.

I finish the MCQ with 30 minutes to spare and decide that I should not read over my answers but just submit and leave, then after 90 minutes in the short written I am once again finished and decide that I have done as much as I can. I wait for my colleagues who were also sitting the exams and chat then head away home thinking "Oh well if I fail I can sit it again in the future".

Now I get on station today for a day shift 7-7 and find a letter in my pigeon-hole telling me that I have in fact actually passed and that the next stage of the process will be in January and will involve me participating in practical assessments... so wish me well and keep your fingers crossed in January!

Festive Time

2005-12-19T16:53:00.000Z

Well I have been given my shifts for the next two weeks and I am working night shift over Christmas and New Year, I do not mind working Christmas as I have no children and Kal is going North to his folks over the festive period so I will get time to spend Christmas with my folks (briefly between my nights) and then I am driving up to meet him at his parents. We are both then working New Year, Kal is volunteering with the British Red Cross at the Edinburgh Hogmanay street party whilst I am working 7-7 nights at my station so it will make for a logistic challenge to meet up.... (hint hint Kal).

I am looking forward to the shifts, yes I know this sounds strange, but the staff that are on will be fun to work with and as you can imagine it will be busy, but when you have a good bunch of people to work with it makes it slightly easier.

I've read your blog!

2005-12-18T16:20:00.000Z

That was what I heard when I answered the phone the other evening at the station. I was working nights and the phone rang, my colleague answered it and said it was for me.

I took the phone and I was told by one of the EMDC Dispatchers "I have been reading your blog for the last 3 days, thanks for making it so interesting" Well I didn't know what to say, but thanks to the EMDC Dispatcher for being honest, I hope that you enjoy it and will continue to enjoy it, but you shouldn't sit still for that long, you might get a DVT!

:)

Nollaig chridheil huibh

2005-12-15T11:31:00.000Z

Well it it getting close to that time of year, therefore I thought I would wish each and everyone "Nollaig chridheil huibh", "Nadolig Llawen", "een plesierige kerfees" or in plan simple terms......

Merry Christmas

I hope that you have a good one and a peaceful New Year.

Weekend Overtime

2005-12-06T22:01:00.000Z

Well I was meant to be off over the weekend, but with nothing much planned and Kal being busy I decided to accept the offer of some extra shifts working with the SORT (Special Operations Response) Team. I roll into their base at 1855hrs on Friday night all flustered and flapping as I had been out Christmas shopping and then went to the cinema to see the new Harry Potter (Very very good). I am met by my colleague who looked slightly less stressed, but had spent nearly 90 minutes trying to get into work as well so we were both in a good mood...not, anyway I was made a coffee by one of the "Decontamination Operatives" and chilled out whilst checking the "Dog Van" (That's the name given to their small rapid response van which looks just like the police dog vehicles) equipment and booking on with the Dispatcher. We were chilling out watching some TV after checking the kit with PS who was my "Driver and Runner" for the evening (well until midnight when he then went on call) and discussing how I like to operate at calls etc when the phone rang and we were off, speeding our way down one of the main streets to a patient with chest pain. We arrived about 5 minutes after the call and a double-crewed Ambulance arrived at the same time, so we checked with them if they were happy to attend themselves and cleared.

Back at the station we settled down again to the TV and 15 minutes after our second coffee we were asked by my other colleague to deliver some new information to the EMDC and Divisional HQ for specific managers, so off we went again. We delivered the information and letters and collected some other equipment from the station around the corner and headed back to our base for our meal break (take away Chinese buffet! yum yum), having just finished the phone went again for a patient who was having a diabetic hypo in the street, when we arrived the patient was fitting and had an un-recordable blood sugar level, PS and myself started treating him and he was given a Glucagon injection to raise his blood sugars, although the first one did not raise the level enough so a second one was given. The patient started to respond to this one just as the crew arrived to back us up and he was handed over to their care.

Back at base again and 35 minutes before PS was due to finish the phone went again, this time for a 17 yr old who had "? drink spiked" off we went, lights flashing, arriving 6 minutes later we are met by a frantic mother, calm / stern looking father and a very sheepish 17 yr old sitting on the toilet seat after decorating the bathroom with vomit! The crew arrived 2 minutes after us and they took over the care of the patient and once again we were clear and started heading back to drop off PS for his finish time.

I was now a single crewed RRU and on a Friday night I expected to be busy.... and I was not wrong, getting sent and stood down to numerous calls, picking up drunks, holding hands of elderly and at one stage being driven by a very helpful police constable to the A&E department with a patient in the back seats of the "Dog van" because of the lack of ambulances and number of outstanding calls. After about my 4th call I was up at the EMDC having a well needed coffee and chat with some old EMDC colleagues, sitting in the EMDC made me realise that I did not miss that aspect of my career, but the people who work hard in the department.

Several calls later I eventually get the RTB (Return to Base) message from my Dispatcher that night and head back, fuelling the vehicle en route. At 7am I walk out the door and think to myself "MMMMM bed".... then I remember that I am still on call for the team until Sunday night at 7pm when I commence my next SORT shift.

Sunday night and I go in early to get fitted for some new equipment which is being issued to all operational staff, I have my coffee after the test (you are exposed to the same tastes as that of the stuff you put on your nails to stop biting them!) and head out, via the shop to the EMDC as it was my turn to take the biscuits up when I was dropping of mail. I meet my Dispatcher, who is relatively new to me, we chat and I explain that I hate sitting doing nothing, so I would be happy to attend anything that she needs help with, prior to me arriving in the EMDC she had sent me to a patient who had been assaulted and turned out to be a minor injury, therefore allowing the EMDC to down-grade the response of the ambulance to a "COLD" (not using lights and sirens) emergency call.

After coffee again, I am off to a 4 month with a non - blanching rash who is floppy, a male who does not know where he is except in the middle of Holyrood Park (A very large area, taking me 20 minutes driving around to discover nothing), I get back to the EMDC and he calls again, this time with better information and I eventually find him, once again no ambulances available so off we go with the "Dog van" to the A&E. I also get the chance that night to respond to a patient fitting in an area covered by Community First Responders, who I had previously been involved with their training, it was good to see the scheme in action and working so well. I was returned to the EMDC to give cover to that side of the town, as the resources for that side of the city were all dedicated, so I was it, at 0545hrs I head back to base, once again re-fuelling en route and topping up my caffeine levels once back at base.

7am Monday morning and our relief crew walk in, we chat and this time I think..."BED all mine and NO PAGER!!!"

29B05 Traffic / Transportation Accident - Unknown Status

2005-12-01T13:11:00.000Z

Well it was a fairly usual mid-week night shift; we had just cleared from a call and were heading back to station via the BP to fuel up. As we turned onto the final straight back to the station the radio sprang into action with its "do do doop" noise and there it was "Outside Jet Garage, Main Street... MY VILLAGE!!" My colleague asked what it was and I told him, so lights on and off we went. Further "Do do doops" tell us that the call that we are attending is a two car accident with the Police en route and then the radio starts ringing (indicating that the EMDC Dispatcher wants to speak with us... He tells us that they are being told that the car has rolled and that there are reports of persons trapped and requested an update ASAP... I advised that we would be on scene within the next 30 seconds and would update as soon as.

With this we swing around the corner and see a warning triangle in the middle of the road and beyond in the glow of the garage lights a car on its roof with other cars scattered around and people milling about. As we slow through the cones that were places to protect the scene (Thanks to the Jet garage for their supply!) We are flagged by a bystander who updates that everyone is out and have been taken into the garage. I jump out and my colleague goes to check the car for damage etc.

As I enter the garage I am met by what can only be described as a blood bath... which is coming from one of the 4 occupants of the car, there is blood pouring from his left arm and his hysterical girlfriend is waving her bleeding hand around. I update the EMDC Dispatcher and request a second vehicle. I got the two most seriously bleeding patients into the ambulance so I could check them out properly.

The lad had multiple lacerations to his left arm, which turned out to be the side that had came into contact with the road for the period of time the car had slid along. There was lots of glass fragments in his arm and hair, this was cleaned to the best of our ability. My colleague treated his girlfriend and she was complaining of neck pains, because of this we treated her as a possible spinal injury and she was placed on a rigid spinal board and a collar applied with head support blocks.

By this time the second ambulance had arrived and they began dealing with the other two patients (who had minor injuries) and one of the crew popped his head into our vehicle to see if we needed further help, his offer was declined and we started to get ready to leave.

Because of the nature of the incident, we could not take any of the patients to the local A&E and had to travel to the larger A&E centre in Edinburgh. We arrived there 22 minutes later and both patients were taken into the Immediate Care section of the department and handed over to the nursing staff. We then had the task of cleaning the vehicle, which to anyone passing would resemble a butchers shop with the amount of blood on the floor, walls and seats. 30 minutes later and a nice clean ambulance we were ready for another call... We got one; it was a voice call from the EMDC Dispatcher offering us our meal break.

What pattern is your Brain?

2005-11-18T13:21:00.000Z

Well I picked this one, not sure if it is really me, I am sure friends will let me know if it is not true!

Your Brain's Pattern

Your brain is always looking for the connections in life.
You always amaze your friends by figuring out things first.
You're also good at connecting people - and often play match maker.
You see the world in fluid, flexible terms. Nothing is black or white.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

29D02c

2005-11-16T15:24:00.000Z

This is the Code that came through on Sunday afternoon. This was followed by a message "Two children hit by a car" so we were off, blue lights flashing and sirens wailing through the sleepy country roads filled with the drivers who for the first time this month check their mirrors as we come barrelling up behind them looking like what can only be described as "A Christmas tree on wheels"

As we arrive we see a car half up on the pavement outside a local shop, with a crowd of people standing about doing the usual shuffling from foot to foot. I get out the vehicle and grab the response bag and oxygen whilst my colleague informs the EMDC (Control room) that we are on scene. I quickly look around for the two children, but seeing nothing I look up and a member of staff speaks to me saying that the two children are in the back of the shop. Picking my way through the shop with my colleague following we arrive in the store area and are greeted with two snot/tear faced 6 year old children being comforted. The little boy's mother is there, unfortunately she is deaf and this makes it more difficult to communicate with her, but we manage eventually. The little girl is the niece of the mother and she is more upset and is being comforted by the boy's mother. I start to examine them and find that they have superficial injuries, the little girl has an abrasion on her back and an egg forming on the back of her head, but she is fully conscious and eventually chatting away after we dry the tears etc. Her little friend also has an abrasion to his back and a smaller one on his ankle, like his friend he is chatty and happy to give me all the information I need. A second crew arrive just as I have finished checking the children and they check the driver, who is shaken, but un-injured and does not wish to travel to hospital.

Both the children reel off their full names, home addresses and telephone numbers when asked. I eventually find out that they were crossing the road at the pedestrian crossing, but the button was faulty and therefore failed to active the light sequence, they carefully walked across the road hand in hand to go and buy some sweets (candy).... unfortunately they had not anticipated that the car coming down the road through the green light may actually hit them before they are safe across the road. The car clipped them both, even although the driver had attempted to try and avoid hitting them when he saw them and they were knocked to the pavement like skittles apparently still holding each others hands.

We transported them and the mother of the boy to the local hospital with the father following in his car. They were handed over to the care of the nursing and medical staff at the hospital to get checked out and were discharged shortly afterwards, sore but overall well.

Going Woo Woo, Nee Naw...........

2005-11-09T13:42:00.000Z

I have just had the pleasure and privilege of attending only the 3rd session on Driving under Police Escort. Now in the Service you are trained to drive an Ambulance at high speed, safely and with consideration to your colleague, patient and other road users, but the one thing that is not covered is driving under escort. The Training Team working with the Police Traffic Unit and arranging a joint training day has now rectified this within my Division.

Basically we arrived at the Traffic Unit at Police HQ and were made welcome with coffee and scones and then we were introduced to the team and shown some presentational material and a training video. We were then split into groups and were taking through the practical aspects of driving at high speed. We looked at working with both Traffic Cars and Bikes and saw the difference between them. Travelling at high speed with blue lights and sirens is not all fun and games, there is a very serious side to it, which, if you make the wrong judgement not just you could suffer...

It was still good to see how well the Traffic Unit handled their vehicles at high speed and WOW those cars and bikes can really move when they need to... who needs a face life when you have traffic cars!!!

First Aid Camp

2005-11-09T13:18:00.000Z

I have recently returned from a first aid camp, this was the first one I had organised and I have to say to all those involved, especially the Scottish Casualties Network a very very big thank you!

The camp started on Friday evening at 1900hrs and by 2030hrs everyone had arrived and the introductions were over so it was onto business.... we ran some small scenarios which were 4 patients all with the same injuries who had a team of first aiders responding to them and dealing with what they found. The teams were a mix of newly trained first aiders to people who had been doing first aid for many years. The evening flew in and it was time for the children to retreat to their dorms and allow the adults to relax and get to know each other better over a small drink :)

0715hrs on Saturday morning and Kal, A (from SCN) and myself were in the kitchen starting breakfast (well I didn't do much cooking.... but I was there to supervise). Breakfast was well received by everyone, the bacon was cooked, the eggs were scrambled and the sausages were sizzling (to which Dillon the search dog was sniffing out). The second day of camp was mixed between lectures and scenarios, to which everyone seemed to respond with a positive outlook. After lunch it was back outside to do more work, new teams with different skill mixes, radios were introduced and triage of patients was expected to be done on the patients they were now treating. The evening meal came around quickly and people who had been first aiders were given the chance to become casualties for the next scenario, after this finished the children were sent to their dorms again to relax and prepare for bed. At 2355hrs the adults were setting up for another scenario, which was going to stretch their skills to the limit....

The scenario was ready and at 0005hrs on Sunday morning the team were called to respond to a "Safe house" which had been raided and the occupants were beaten, tied up and left for dead. There was no lights, it was unsure if there were traps set to explode, after it was found to be safe, and working with torch light only we (the team of 8) were sent into a small 10" by 10" room to triage, treat, transport and deliver further care to the hostages. The scenario went on for an hour, with all the patients removed and treated successfully, with limited equipment, poor lighting and a massive emotional pressure to deal with everyone in a compassionate and caring manner. At 0130hrs everyone was exhausted, but high on adrenaline and after a well-deserved drink we all retreated to our dorms.

Sunday morning came too quickly for some and it was back to the three of us in the kitchen preparing another cooked breakfast, feeding the 20 people who were at the camp, and it was time to start the scenarios again, these passed quickly and it was time to pack up, clean up and go home.

Having spoken with a few people who attended the camp on Monday and Tuesday it was apparent that they enjoyed the camp, but felt mentally and physically exhausted....... I was glad it was not just me getting old!

Oh well not long till the next one :)

Life changing

2005-11-03T13:45:00.000Z

Well I spoke to one of the nurses who looked after my patient with the head injury and it turns out that he will probably be left with permanent brain damage and speech problems and he is being transferred to a brain injuries unit for rehabilitation. It is such a shame that someone who goes out for a few drinks ends up having his life changed so dramatically.

A nice night for a spin

2005-11-03T13:03:00.000Z

Well sitting in my Ambulance outside A&E after clearing from depositing our first patient of the evening (a female who had 3 seizures in a corner shop) I was on the phone to Kal and my colleague was using the facilities when our next call came in and it was to one of the two motorways in our area, albeit not the first one you would imagine we would be going to. So my colleague quickly hurries back to the vehicle and we start on our journey, now the heavens had decided it was a good time to release all the rain that was stored at once last night, therefore causing localised flooding on some of the roads and some patches of large puddles on the motorways. Now we are updated by the Dispatcher that we are backing up the Rapid Response Unit from the neighbouring area so as we turn onto the motorway we see the RRU just in front of us, accelerating away at a great speed into the rain and spray.

On our arrival at the scene (Lots of blue, red and orange flashing lights gives it away) we are met by a police officer who directs us to a car parked further up the hard shoulder, we pass the car involved in the incident, which is lying on its roof about 100ft up the embankment. We arrive at the second car and the three occupants of the car that has crashed start coming out, the female is covered in blood and resembling an extra from a horror movie. So there we are 3 ambulance personnel (RRU paramedic and my colleague and me) and 3 patients in the back of the ambulance, we pick a patient each and start to treat them, I get the mother, my colleague has the child initially and then helps the RRU paramedic with the father, who is complaining on neck pains. After cleaning up the mother and getting the father onto a spinal board and explaining to the son what is happening we start on our journey to Stirling A&E (As it's easier going there than turning back at the next junction and travelling further away to Edinburgh Royal which is the designated trauma centre for this type of incident). We provide a courtesy call to A&E to let them know that we are bringing in 3 patients so that they have rooms available for the patients. We eventually manage to hand over all three patients to the nursing staff and we start to clean our vehicle, which looks like someone has taken a bomb and set it off with the doors closed over to keep the mess inside!

2 mid-week males!!

2005-11-02T07:38:00.000Z

Well I am on nights at the minute and I have had an interesting shift. The workload was nothing to complain about, but two of the calls were ones that have stuck in my mind....

The first call was to a male who had been assaulted in a pub, it turned out that he had been struck across the head with a bar stool by a "Friend". When we arrived we were met by the barman who said "I think he might need a couple of stitches!”

Walking into the bar we were confronted with a male aged in his 30's lying on the floor with a bar towel being pressed firmly to the top of his head by one of the other staff, upon examining the wound it was approx 3cms in length but semi circular, the patient was responding but not fully aware of what had happened (GCS13 for those in the know), my colleague quickly handed me a large dressing to control the bleeding and went to get the chair, whilst she was away I carried out a quick head to toe survey and found no other injuries, speaking to the patient I noticed that he was still dazed and confused, having gotten him into the ambulance I was able to assess him further and found that he was showing a weakness to his right arm and leg. When we arrived at hospital, I handed him over to the staff and explained my findings and gave a provisional diagnosis...Male head injury? Bleed or injury to brain... 2 hours later he was transferred to a Neurological unit for surgery as his CT scan had shown that he had a fractured skull with small air pockets forming around his brain, I was tempted to go back to the bar and let the barman know that he needed more than stitches!

The second call was for a male, once again who was in his 30's and was feeling suicidal, when we arrived he was sitting in a bus shelter swallowing tablets by the handful, when speaking to him he said that he wanted to die, but couldn't manage to get to an area quite enough to hang himself. He was conscious and orientated, but just wanted to be left alone to die. Both my colleague and the two police officers who had turned up with us to find him were explaining that we were not going to just leave him in the street to die and that he was either going to hospital with us in out nice warm clean ambulance or he could travel in a police van, but one way or another he WAS going! Whilst all this was happening I was outside picking up the various packets of tablets and making a mental note of the quantities so that when I called ahead to the hospital they could run the tablets through the toxicology database and see what treatment he would need.

Which one are you?

2005-10-26T23:11:00.000+01:00

Rafael. You're most like the ArchAngel of Healing.
You want people to shape up, and you nag. But
you mean well, and you're well loved despite
it. Or because of it. You bring the donuts
even as you tell people to eat more veggies.

Which ArchAngel are you most like?
brought to you by Quizilla

Classic comment

2005-10-21T12:19:00.000+01:00

Having spent the last two evening with Kal I have been forced to blog about one of his comments.... (Yes he will get me back no doubt!)

We were sitting on Wednesday evening and I was feeling very much under the weather, but battling the onset of the cold with Hot Lemonade, Fresh Orange Juice and paracetamol to help control my temperature. Now the conversation was not the best, mainly grunts from me in response to Kal (He will say that is normal!) and the conversation got onto that fact that I had called him and he did not answer, to this he said "That is strange I didn't get a voice mail" to which I stated "That is because you don't have voice mail on your phone!" Kal then said "yeah it has been ever since I got this new phone, my voice mail seems to have stopped working" now for those of you who know Kal, you will know he is an intelligent, IT literate techno-guru which caused me to laugh out when he said that and between giggling I and said to him "No dear it is not your phone that is causing the problem, it is because you turned it off when you went to Belgium!" I just wish I had my camera with me to capture the expression on his face when he figured out what he had said and also remembered that yes he had de-activated his voice mail whilst away and had forgotten to re-activate it upon his return!

Oh how good it feels to be smarter than Kal for once!!

Getting close!

2005-10-19T12:20:00.000+01:00

Well I can honestly say that it feels like I am going back to school, I am sitting here listening to the washing machine doing my uniforms, making sure that they are all nice and freshly laundered and ready for pressing for me starting back work next week, my boots will get polished and my work bag will be re-packed, it feels like the only thing I am missing is the apple for my teacher!

Annual Leave

2005-10-17T11:48:00.000+01:00

Well I have been on Annual leave for the last two weeks and have another week to go before I start back in my "Greens". This does not mean that I have not been in them whilst off though (NO No no I am not that kinky! and neither is Kal that good at begging!) I have been doing the odd overtime shift with SORT (Special Operations Response Team), these guys are great, they receive a lot of bad press internally within the Service as they are seen to sit and drink tea and eat digestives all day, but they don't (Well not all the time). I have done the odd shift with them before, mostly as an "On-call" team member, so I jumped at the chance to work a couple of shifts with them.

I can now honestly say that driving a 7 1/2 tonne truck with blue lights and sirens through sleepy East Lothian villages is one of the best things in the world... well I know there is probably better but it was GREAT!!!

Whilst working on the team I had the chance to get back into a chemical suit, set up the MDU (Mobile Decontamination Unit) and a CCS (Casualty Clearing Station) on the Monday, I was also poked and prodded by some visitors from Denmark who were over to see the set up and equipment which the SOR Team have available to them. I was also given my refresher on the oxygen system, vehicle tail lift, scene set up etc.

On the next couple of shifts I didn't really do anything other than refresher training on equipment, systems etc. I was lucky enough to get down to see the USAR (Urban Search And Rescue) training at the Fire College, we had just gotten kitted up in the extra protective equipment from the Fire Service and were ready to go into the "Building site" and our pagers went off to indicate we had a job, so quick change and into the vehicles and off we went with lights and sirens going...to much interest of the locals within the villages of East Lothian seeing big white trucks with SPECIAL OPERATIONS sign written along the side (some people think its the bomb squad!) only to be stood down when we got onto the A1. I got back onto the station and some of the team were due to finish, and new staff were coming on (staff work 8 and 12 hrs shifts), so with my new partner we took a different vehicle (smaller version of the truck) and went of to fuel it and collect some paperwork. Whilst in the EMDC (Control Room) a call came in for a chemical incident and away we were again! Only to be stood down two hundred yards from the incident site, oh well back to base again!

What's your name? I'm snooty bubble chunks!

2005-10-08T13:11:00.000+01:00

We all need a little stress-reliever!
This only takes a minute.
Sometimes when you have a stressful day or week, you need some silliness to break up the day. And, if we are honest, we have a lot more stressful days than not.
Here is your dose of humour...

Follow the instructions to find your new name.

And don't go all adult - a senior manager is now known far and wide as Dorky Gizzardsniffer.

The following is excerpted from a children's book, Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants, by Dave Pilkey, in which the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names...

1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine
your new first name:

a = snickle
b = doombah
c = goober
d = cheesey
e = crusty
f = greasy
g = dumbo
h = farcus
i = dorky
j = doofus
k = funky
l = boobie
m = sleezy
n = sloopy
o = fluffy
p = stinky
q = slimy
r = dorfus
s = snooty
t = tootsie
u = dipsy
v = sneezy
w = liver
x = skippy
y = dinky
z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine
the first half of your new last name:
a = dippin
b = feather
c = batty
d = burger
e = chicken
f = barffy
g = lizard
h = waffle
i = farkle
j = monkey
k = flippin
l = fricken
m = bubble
n = rhino
o = potty
p = hamster
q = buckle
r = gizzard
s = lickin
t = snickle
u = chuckle
v = pickle
w = hubble
x = dingle
y = gorilla
z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine
the second half of your new last name:

a = butt
b = boob
c = face
d = nose
e = hump
f = breath
g = pants
h = shorts
i = lips
j = honker
k = head
l = tush
m = chunks
n = dunkin
o = brains
p = biscuits
q = toes
r = doodle
s = fanny
t = sniffer
u = sprinkles
v = frack
w = squirt
x = humperdinck
y = hiney
z = juice

Thus, for example, George W. Bush's new name is: Fluffy
Chucklefanny.

Personal Space

2005-10-06T23:19:00.000+01:00

This blog comes about after a discussion with Kal one evening, we were talking about driving and how that he found it easy to get used to the space needed to park and manoeuvre his truck (when he was out driver training). I said that it was because he was a man..........I got the feeling that I might be walking into a mine field considering I have several female friends and colleagues who drive and park their Ambulances better than some of their male associates. I felt that I needed to take this discussion further as to allay any possible fears that I was being chauvinistic.

I feel that men, in general, have more awareness of personal space and dimensions because of the fact that when you grow up as a boy, you are more likely to have to build and improvise toys (i.e. the Cardboard box turned into a tank/ship/fire truck) by either sitting in it and pretending you are somewhere else or running rope through some holes and using then to support the weight of the box so you can run around with it..... therefore learning that you can fit into a space or that if you turn quickly you may knock over something and feel the wrath of your mother because you have made a mess in the living room etc

Women on the other hand are used to playing predominantly in a rigid structure (Wendy house, etc) and are therefore more used to space being set for them and not having to manoeuvre something in confined spaces...........

Well dear readers, what do you think to my theory?

Sorry

2005-10-06T23:14:00.000+01:00

I can only apologise to all my erm....fans, blog readers. I know I have not been bloging for a while but I have been busy with work and helping my boyfriend Kal get ready for his recruitment days, not that he really needed much help but a bit of guidance is always useful.

I will resume normal service in the near future!

Times 3

2005-08-24T13:28:00.000+01:00

Isn't it strange that you can do days without using a piece of equipment and then suddenly you get a run of calls that need the same item each time, last night was like that, the first three calls of the evening were all lower limb trauma, all requiring pain relief (Entonox only)and stabilisation using a box splint. Now this may not seem too strange, but it meant that I spent most of the time at hospital trying to find replacements for the box splints (which at times proved interesting). Oh well only got two more shifts to go, wonder what it will be tonight?

Survival

2005-08-21T23:58:00.000+01:00

Well there we go I managed to survive working with G, we were kept busy but nothing too challenging. The night was fueled with Alcohol and was propelled along with feelings from the old firm game that had taken place earlier in the day. We had our usual run of the mill assaults, interspersed with patients fitting in the street and patients who were basically PAFO (Pissed And Fallen Over). I think both G and myself are not the bad luck when it comes to eventful calls, but our colleagues who we sometimes work with during our 16 week shift pattern. I have also managed to survive being on call for the SOR Team (Special Operations Response) and have been paid on call money for basically sitting watching TV and drinking lots of tea, coffee and red cola!

Oh well I am on 4 nights this week so will keep you all updated with anything of interest, think I might arrange for an observer or two to come out with me!

He's gone and left me

2005-08-20T15:37:00.000+01:00

Well for those of you who actually read this I have to let you know that Kal (my BF)has left me........... yes it finally happened on Thursday morning, but don't be too upset for me as he is only on holiday. I promised him that I would blog more to keep him up to date with what is happening whilst he is off eating chocolate and swigging buckets full of beer (and that is before breakfast I think!) Well unfortunately I have not done much to blog, therefore I can only appologise to him and you my readers as well. I will try and keep you informed if there is anything of interest over the next 48hrs (I am working tonight then on call for the Special Operations Response Team) so hopefully there will be something exciting!

Working with G

2005-08-20T15:32:00.000+01:00

Well here we go, I am working with a colleague tonight who on the last two occassions I have worked with her we have been involved in some traumatic job or another, it always goes the same, I attend for the first period of the shift and she drives, we get the usual run of the mill calls, then when we swap over and she sits in the attendant seat all hell breaks loose. The last time we worked together we ended up with a car that had rolled whilst slowing from the reported 100mph (Police Traffic Sergent estimation) to 40mph to pass the speed camera and both occupants of the car were treated for potential spinal injuries and luckily walked out of hospital a few hours later.

Now tonight is the same shift that we worked (1800 - 0200hrs) and it is a full moon, so we will see what happens to us tonight.

Think I will drive first tonight!

The curse of the observer

2005-08-10T13:45:00.000+01:00

Well I have been working the last two days at a different station and have had an observer out with us for both days (same person). Now any of you who know about observing will be bored with this bit, but for those of you who don't sit back and relax. Observing is when a third person rides along on the vehicle to gain either clinical experience or exposure in relation to pre hospital care. The observer we had with us had been out before on the RRU (Rapid Response Unit - single crewed Paramedic vehicle) but had limited experience on an AEU (Double crewed Accident and Emergency Unit Ambulance). Now observing shifts are one of two things, you are either sitting on stand by all day waiting on the phone/ radio to go or you are non stop with quality calls.

Well on the first day (I was attending = looking after the patients), we started our shift at 1500hrs and were due to finish at 0100hrs. We were dispatched to an urgent call (This means a Doctor has assessed the patient at home and allocated a timed response to get into hospital). En route to this call we were diverted to a Red call (Emergency response which has 8 minutes for us to get there), we arrived within 4 minutes of the call and treated the patient and transported him to hospital, and this is how it went for most of the evening, being sent to one call and getting diverted for a more serious call whilst en route. One of the more interesting calls was a call roll over in a busy city street, the car had struck two pedestrian's before ending up on its roof. When we turned up as the 3rd crew we were greeted with fire engines, police cars and two ambulances, our observer was amaizing (now she is a first aider so is used to dealing with patients, but not like these ones) my colleague and I would bark out our requests and she would go off and get what we needed. We eventually managed to get our first meal break at 2230hrs (supposed to have been at 1830hrs) We get our final call to the other end of the city at 2345 for a patient with difficulty in breathing, and are told that the RRU is also attending, when we arrive the RRU is as we were told in attendance and had stabilised the patient and we continued his treatment and transported him to the hospital.

The second shift started with much the same, check the vehicle, try and grab a coffee......no thought of kettle on = phone ringing, and off we go again lights and sirens going for a patient fitting on a bus, now I am driving today so the observer is sitting up front with me as my partner quite happily sits in the back so that the observer can get a full rounded experience of going to calls and seeing the traffic issues faced by responding crews. Once again our observer slotted in well and was back and forward fetching equipment and setting things up etc, we passed a standby (Requested a resus team be waiting in the Emergency Department) to the hospital and set of with the patient and mother in the vehicle, lights and sirens going again. The rest of the shift was uneventful, but fairly steady and we managed to get finished again on time......very unusual for a 1am finish.

So all I can say is that the curse of the observer may not always be the case!

A nice evening for a walk

2005-08-05T14:28:00.000+01:00

Picture the scene it is a a lovely summer night, the weather is mild and the moon is out. I had bought some red bull and chocolate to have when I get back and suddenly "Doodle-oot" the radio springs into life and my partner and I are responding to a 999 call for a "21YOM with Chest Pains" now this sounds like a normalish type of call considering that it is 0130hrs and the pubs are clubs are closing, so we weave our way through the night traffic with lights flashing and arrive on scene within 5 minutes. Upon our arrival the radio starts ringing and my colleague answers it to be told the Dispatcher that the patient is actually walking along a path about 5 minutes away from the original location and is in the woods!!!! Yeah so now picture the scene, One high powered torch, Two Ambulance Technician's and a wooded area that is used for skateboarding etc. Now this place has lots and lots of tracks leading into the deeper undergrowth which my colleague and I searched, we decided that it would be easier to split up, so with maglite in hand off I went. I eventually found a pile of clothing folded in some bushes and relayed this to my colleague, now we were told by the Dispatcher that the patient had gone quiet on the phone, so we were now more concerned. We were eventually joined by two of L&B's finest who helped us search and eventually find the patient (who was actually fully clothed). I went back to the Ambulance to bring it closer to the patient, who by this stage was exhausted as he had been walking around and around the various paths and roads trying to get from the club to his home. Now we had the patient safely in the vehicle, he was anxious, hyperventilating and still c/o chest pains. We transported him to A&E and he was monitored en route by my colleague, upon our arrival we handed him over to the nursing staff and we thought that would be it, no that was not the case however. Now this 21YOM needed to pee, and he was quite vocal in this, but unfortunately the staff were concerned that he would collapse if he stood up and there were no male staff in the department..........Yes you guessed it, I was asked by one of the nurses if I could stay with him as he used a bottle, now I have changed from SMM Ambulance Technician to SMM Clinical Support Worker. So there we are just the two of us standing me trying to calm him down (still hyperventilating and worried about his chest pain) and my patient talking about how he doesn't think anyone is listening to him and how he really needs to go.......... After about 5 minutes he is more calm, but still not able to pee, a hand pops through the screens and flicks the tap on...... Still not able to pee he gives up and sits back on the bed, thanking me for my help as he plonks down. I walk out the cubicle smile at the nurse and she tells me the coffee and chocolate is on her next time. Oh well back to my red bull, which I am now drinking some 12 hours late!

Sorry

2005-07-19T17:18:00.000+01:00

Well I have to apologise to my readers for not being a good blogger and keeping you up to date with things. I have been busy organising my 30th Birthday party, which went well (I think so anyway, but I was drinking pints of Smirnoff Ice by the end of the night). I would like to thank everyone who attended who reads this and for those of you who couldn't make it then you missed a good night.

I have not just been drinking all the time, I have been fairly busy studying for my BIG FINAL EXAMS, which were TODAY!!!!! I was nervous, worried, anxious etc etc about it and as someone said to me the other day "Don't worry it is only your career on the line!" Well as a result of the build up of nerves and anxiety I have been a bit of a shit to my friends and especially my b/f (Who I would like to just say "Sorry and Thank you so much") as I have been wrapped up a bit in my own little world.

Well the day arrived, I was on station at 0835hrs for a 0900hrs start, thinking I would have plenty time for a coffee and a final flick through my notes, but I got side tracked and at 0855hrs still hadn't finished my coffee and valium (only joking about the valium) and the Training Manager (Really Nice Man, but oh my God does he look scary on Finals Day!) was saying "shall we just start then?" Gulp! Ok. So it began, the first was a 30 minute multi choice paper, 10 minute break, then onto the two hour "short" written (god I would hate to see what a long written is like......two weeks??) exam of which I had to answer all sections. I was then given a further 10 minutes to get a coffee, go and cry, pee etc and back into the training room for practical assessments covering CPR, Defibrillation, Airway Management, then onto more scenario's from Child Birth to Drug Overdose to Diabetes to Seizures to finally questions regarding Paramedic airway management and drug protocols!!! I was told that I could then have a break for Lunch (by this stage now 1300hrs). After Lunch I was advised that we were going out for a driving assessment and further practical "real life" assessments if we get a call. We didn't get any calls, so I drove around my station area covering many road types and during this drive I was questioned about highway code, signals etc as well as some general discussion about Service development and personal development.

Final at 1600hrs I was told that I had passed and that the Training Manager had been confident that I would, based on the feedback that he had been receiving over the last few weeks.

So there we go, I am now a fully qualified Ambulance Technician who has been told to keep studying and make sure that I am ready for the Paramedic pre-entry exams next year!!

Yipee :)

Getting old..........So I kept getting told

2005-06-15T11:33:00.000+01:00

Well it is true, I am getting old! I will soon be 30! yes I know that is not old, but over the last few days some people who I believe to be friends are constantly telling me that I will be an old man. SO I need YOUR help, what do you think I should do for my 30th Birthday?

Answers on a postcard to SMM (Old Bloke), PO BOX 30 (Over the hill), Ancient or send me a comment!

Alcohol......and people!

2005-05-30T16:23:00.000+01:00

It is a common fact that alcohol makes people act in a strange manner, but for some it is so powerful that it can cause them to do things that they would never normally do. Now I am not here to go on and on about how alcohol is bad for you or how it has ruined society and corrupted the youth of today, instead I am going to tell you how it changes my other half into the wild Orcadian (No I don't mean in that way!!!!) I am now using this change as a good indicator for how drunk he is. You see it all started some time ago when I noticed that as he drank more, the more he would return to his orcadian accent, this was re-enforced on Saturday evening when we were both out for a drink with some of my old colleagues from the EMDC (Control), now we were only intending to have a couple of drinks and then get something to eat, now my bf and I arrived at the pub around 8pm and after consuming several pints at a steady pace interjected with good conversation and "banter" we decided to call it a night. So at 1130pm we grabbed a cab and stopped at the local Indian restaurant for some food, in the taxi ride down, the odd orcadian word was now starting to trip off his tongue, by the time we were in the second cab going to his place, he was in full flow orcadian all the way, I chuckled and pulled his leg about it and he had to agree that he was now feeling drunk (which he had previously denied). I am sure that he will now have an interesting story about some of my recent comments in relation to my forthcoming Birthday discussions and the discussions in relation to our parents.

Loneliness

2005-04-14T14:48:00.000+01:00

It is strange that even although you are in a room full of people that you can feel totally alone, you can also feel like that when you are sitting working away on something and your phone beeps letting you know that you have a message and your heart then skips a beat thinking that you are hearing from a loved one, but instead it is only telling you that you have an email from some obscure sender trying to sell you something or other. I know that feeling well, the one where you think "Oh maybe it is....." but recently it has not been :(

I had a long chat with him the other night and cleared the air in regards to how I have been feeling recently. I do not think that we have finished talking, I have so much that I want to say, but at times I cannot articulate what is going on in my head into a normal conversation, it just seems to come out like "Blah blah blah, snort, cry snort, blahhhhh!" God I sound like I should be seeing a psychiatrist, but I am fine, just lots of feelings and emotions rushing around in my head because I have so much time on my hands at the minute. I will be fine once I am at work again and focused on helping others and not having to worry about me.

Emotions

2005-04-11T17:43:00.000+01:00

Why is it that you are going about your daily routine and suddenly you are hit with a brick wall of emotion? Is it just me?

I have just returned from what can only be described as a scary, but pleasant weekend with my man and his family (when I say family I mean the 30 other people who helped celebrate his gran's 80th Birthday), now the weekend was going so well and I was just about coping with all the people and names etc. I now find myself a total wreck of emotion, I was sitting today crying on Arthur Seat (Large dormant volcano) and I don't know why, I have tried to figure it out, was it because I saw my man with his gran (both of mine are dead), was it the fact that I spent a whole weekend with my man and then last night had to leave him or is it something totally stupid, something from the past that is creaping back into my mind because I have time to sit and think?

You will probably be saying to yourself that this guy is nuts, maybe I am, maybe I should see my doctor or maybe I just need to sit down with someone and talk, when I say talk I mean them just sitting there with the kleenex and me spouting out my soul to them. Even now as I sit here typing this, trying to work out things in my head I can feel the emotions rushing around in my body, trying to find a way of escaping from me and I don't know if I want that or if I could cope with it...... It is a scary thought that I cannot be in control

British summertime

2005-03-27T16:24:00.000+01:00

I like this time of year, it means that we are now officially into the start of the lighter evenings of summer, it is also a nice feeling to be sitting at work and suddenly seeing that you only now have 5 hours left to work because you have suddenly jumped an hour because at 1am this morning, it suddenly became 2am (well we had to move the clocks forward ourselves). I hate this when you are working day shift, as you loose an hour sleep, but on nights it is probably one of the best feelings you can have.

Life.....

2005-03-18T14:00:00.000Z

It is amazing to think that someone who is clinically dead can have a pulse and be making breathing efforts some 30 minutes after they collapse, this happened to me last night. I was working with a paramedic and we had a call for a female who was unconscious and having difficulty breathing, as we sped along the country roads with lights flashing and sirens sounding we were updated by the EMDC (Control room) that the patient was now in cardiac arrest and CPR was ongoing. (Now any of you who have red my blog will know I have a kill to save rate of 100% kill so you can imagine what is going through my head) Upon our arrival we are met by the patient's brother who is relatively calm for the situation, we are shown into the house to see the patient's husband bouncing up and down on her chest and blowing air into her mouth whilst talking to someone on the phone in the EMDC to receive further guidance (Telephone CPR instructions is a standard protocol within the EMDC and all staff are trained to give these types of instructions out as and when required). We quickly take over and do our checks, Airway? Clear, Breathing? No, Circulation...? No, I take over at the head and secure her airway with an OP airway and start breathing for the patient using a bag and mask (anyone who has seen ER and Casualty will know what I mean) and doing chest compressions whilst my colleagues connects up our defib, the machine shows PEA so I continue doing CPR whilst my paramedic colleague gains IV (Intra Venous) access for a drug route. We give the woman 1mg of Epinephrine and swap places, my colleague then secures the patient's airway with an ET tube and continues to ventilate the patient whilst I do CPR, I listen to make sure that he has placed the tube in the correct place and I hear bilateral breath sounds and I get him to stop for a moment, he looks at me with that "Oh shit I have not got the tube in correct" face, but I tell him it is in and I can also hear a heart beat, we check for a pulse and yes it is true there is one to be felt. I get the brother to help me collect some more equipment from the vehicle and go back into the house, we get the patient onto our stretcher, secure her and make sure the ET tube is well secured and begin our tricky exit (up a flight of stairs, along a dark path, up another steep hill incline to avoid the second set of tight steps and then into the Ambulance) all whilst breathing for the patient. Once we have her in the vehicle, we check the ET tube again to make sure it has not dislodged and prepare for moving off. The patient's husband and daughter are in the back of the vehicle with my colleague and I request the A&E department resuscitation team be standing by to accept the patient. We arrive and the family are shown the door to A&E for public, my colleague and I take the patient into the Resuscitation room where we are met by the team (2 Doctors, 1 Operating Department Practitioner , 2 Nurses and 1 Senior Nurse) who accept the patient into their care and take our handover. My colleague and I then return to our vehicle and start the task of clearing up and completing all the necessary paperwork. Once this is done we return to the station for our meal break and celebrate with Pepsi and chocolate bars (imagining them to be alcohol and expensive take aways!!!) We checked on the patient some 10 hours later and found out that she had been transferred to the ITU and was still making some efforts to breathe on her own.....

Death Nil Scotsmedicman and paramedic partner 1

British Justice

2005-03-07T08:52:00.000Z

Well I was supposed to be attending a court case today as a witness (a guy tried to assault me and a colleague whilst we were dealing with a pregnant female in December), so as per normal instructions, I called the court to see if I was still required to attend, fully expecting them to say that I was......to my delight I was told by the nice lady on the phone that I am not required as the person had pleaded guilty on Friday YIPEE!!!!!! now you may wonder why I am happy about this, but I was totally terrified about going to court, I don't really know why, but my b/f was very supportive and gave me lots of good advice last night when he could have just told me to relax. Oh well I suppose I had better get ready for some real work now!

Snow

2005-03-01T20:05:00.000Z

I woke at 4:30am this morning and looked out the window, it was damp outside, but clear, I thought to myself I have another hour in bed before I need to get ready for work. I got back up at 5:30am and got shaved, showered and dressed thinking to myself it would be a 5 minute drive to work at this time of the day.......Oh was I wrong!!!

I opened the door to be confronted by the blizzard which was blowing outside, the same blizzard that had covered my car with about 1/4 of a tonne of snow!!!

Now don't get me wrong, I like snow, I like walking in snow, I like the look of snow on the hills, but I bloody hate snow on roads that have not seen a gritter for days! It makes everyone drive like a blood idiot as well. The first job of the morning was a 30 yes 30 car accident on the M8, we (my colleague and I) were stood down as we were not required, but having arrived back on station and checked the vehicle we were taking for the day (we had taken a spare as our vehicle was not back for our start of shift) we were sent out to an emergency for a 72 year old female who had chest pains, now she lived about 7 minutes away from the station in normal driving conditions, but it took us nearly 25 minutes to get to her because the other drivers on the road did not understand that we could not magically orb past them and that they would have to give us some space in the snow bound roads.

Oh it is amazing how a bit of snow can cause so much chaos to the central belt of Scotland.

Valentine's Day

2005-02-15T04:53:00.000Z

Well I unfortunately had to work on Valentine's day so I was not able to shower my man with the love and affection that he deserves. I will probably not get a chance to see him until later in the week, so I want to say publicly........

Kal,I LOVE YOU and you mean the world to me and I am so lucky to have you as a friend and lover.

XXXXX

The wonder of narcan!

2005-02-15T04:43:00.000Z

Whilst working over the weekend I managed to see narcan being used after an overdose. I have dealt with two patients who have taken heroin and both been very close to the big white gates, however, my paramedic colleagues were able to administer the necessary dose of narcan and reverse the OD quickly. I even managed to avoid being vomited on (unlike my colleague who was standing in front of the patient at the time)

British workmen

2005-02-04T00:08:00.000Z

Well it is getting close to that time when the gas man is coming to service the cooker, he is arriving on Friday, yes at last, we have only been waiting for 5 weeks with no oven......It may not sound that bad, but when you have a flat mate who bakes the most amaizing cakes in the world, then it is a "TRAGEDY" I am forever hopeful that the engineer (used in loose terms) will arrive on time and fix the cooker without too much hassle. He did arrive last week and after the usual sucking in deeply of breath, said that the cooker was older than he assumed and would not be able to fix it and would need a part, now how difficult is it to fix a cooker that was bought less than 1 year ago?????

Daytime TV

2005-02-03T15:41:00.000Z

Ok I have noticed that daytime TV, regardless of how many channels you have, is on the whole full of adverts for "Had an Accident that wasn't your fault.......Let's sue someone!" or "You have been really stupid with your credit cards, let us give you a loan for the next 50 years so that you can pay off you cards now!". Some of the programmes that are on as well are repeats of repeats, yes there are some which are classics, but on the whole I have decided that the TV producers must know that they have the captive audience of single mothers, the unemployed and elderly sitting at home all day so why should they bother with trying to create new programmes for anyone when there is a whole abundance of re-runs available to them!!!

Weekend life

2005-01-30T22:22:00.000Z

Well you are supposed to relax and enjoy your weekend off, I however managed to get landed with being on call for work this weekend for the division which I have now technically left. This basically means that should something nasty happen to the people of Scotland I will be one of a specialized team of individuals to be called out to help get things sorted! I also managed to land the honour of being the TEAM LEADER!!!! for the whole weekend, so should anyone have any questions of queries about the team they contact me. I was planning to have a quiet relaxing weekend with a couple of friends (Mr R Bull and Mr P Smirnoff) but because of the "On-call" I couldn't, I did however manage to see my bf this weekend and it was lovely, we had a nice chinese take away, chilled out with my flat mate and her friend and spent a lovely relaxing Sunday afternoon going for walks and drives in the country and then finishing the day off with a lovely coffee and cake moment in a very nice, modern bar/restaurant/hotel. The only thing I hate about weekends is that they finish so quickly, especially a Sunday, it reminds me of being at school and thinking "Yes it is Friday, time to party", then suddenly wakening up and finding out it is Sunday and you have not done anything you had planned and were due back at school the next day and had not even looked at your books/homework etc etc Oh well at least I am on nights tomorrow so I get a longish lie in bed (unless the bloody mobile phone goes for a callout!)

Family Gatherings

2005-01-27T07:13:00.000Z

Well there I was, stressing about my parents forthcoming 40th Wedding Anniversary as it was going to be the first time that my bf had met most of my extended family. Well the night before the party I was going out for a meal with my bf and some of his work colleagues, but prior to this I was to pick up some of my dad's side of the family and deposit them at my folks house. I collected my bf and then swung past the hotel where the relatives were staying and collected them, only to be met by this wee woman saying that she was expecting my father to have collected them and thought that both my parents would be going to the hotel for a drink, so they had just gone to the bar to buy a round of drinks...."Oh god" I thought I only have 25 minutes to get you to my parents house and then back into town with my bf to meet up with his colleagues. I explained that I was going to move the car so I was not blocking the entrance, came back out and said to my bf that there may be a slight delay and could we go in. After managing to get the relatives out of the bar we sped (keeping to the limit) to my parents house so that I could introduce my sister and her family to my bf along with my uncle and his wife who were already at my parents place. It was an interesting conversation en route to my folks house and then again once we had arrived. We said our hello's and hi's and then headed back into town and I promised to be back early the next day to collect my sister and auntie to help with the shopping and decorating of the hall for the party that evening. The meal with my bf and his colleagues was lovely, it was a nice little Thai restaurant just off cockburn street, everyone was pleasant and friendly and we all enjoyed ourselves.

The next morning the chaos started, I collected my sister and we went to pick up the cake, when we arrived it was still not ready, so we went and did some other shopping and then returned for the cake, we then swung past my aunt's and collected her and headed into the hall to look at what decorations were going to be required, once we had decided what we were doing in the hall we then had to go and track down the necessary decorations, which we eventually managed to do, only to find that once we had blown up the last balloon it said "Happy 60th Anniversary"....Unfortunately it was my parent's 40th Anniversary, so we all had a moment of blind panic checking all the other balloons, but it must have been a rogue balloon as the rest all had 40th on them to our relief. After we had finished decorating the hall (which was only scheduled to take 2hrs maximum) 4 1/2hrs later we headed back to my aunt's to drop her off and collect some of the other gifts for my parent's I then dropped my sister off so that she could start getting her 3 sons ready for the evening along with her husband, herself and both my parent's I was glad I was going home to get ready even if they do have two toilets in the house!!

I sped back to my flat to collect my kilt and then headed back to my bf's to meet him and get ready, this was nice, it was relaxed and calm in his house, I almost felt like I could fall asleep, but I knew I didn't have time, we were both ready in record time and kited out in our kilts headed out the door. Upon arrival at the hotel, which I had only left 90 minutes previously, I was slightly disappointed that my parent's had arrived before us, as I wanted to make sure that they sat in the correct place etc (which they had anyway). The hall slowly started filling up with family, friends and colleagues of my parent's and the place started to have more of an atmosphere, I introduced my bf to as many people as I could during the evening, making sure that I kept him updated with who is related to who etc etc, I think at one stage he was ready just to sit in a corner and cry as it was something like this: This is SH and S, they are the son and daughter of R and B, SH is going out with D and S is married to F, now D and SA are expected soon and they are the cousins of SH and S and me, their parent's are D and S, S is the sister of my mum and R, and R is only 3yrs older than L, you got that so far??? Good right now L is married to ST, and they have 3 sons called D, M and J and it went on. God only knows how he survived, but he did and I was so happy to see that he was getting on with the people that I thought he would and relaxing as the night went on, at one stage he even managed to get me to fall for a trick played by one of my nephew's.

The evening was in my opinion a success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I just hope that the next lot of gatherings goes as well (of which there are a few this year, my 30th, my uncle's 50th, my Dad's 60th and my sister's 40th).

Oh how I love a good party! Especially if they play cha cha slide :)

Weather

2005-01-18T17:00:00.000Z

It is amazing how a little bit of snow can suddenly cause so much chaos on the roads, I am sitting here listening to the radio road reports, and it seems that ever single road in and around Edinburgh is either heavily congested or blocked by the sudden change in weather conditions, as I look out on my kitchen window all I see is white, yes it has snowed quite heavily, but with some care and attention it should still be relatively easy to get around, but oh no, not the people of east central scotland, we only have to see snow and we panic, I was chatting to my bf this morning as he is preparing to go to work (I have the day off ha ha ha) and he was slightly worried about driving in, now he comes from the Highlands and he said that if there was snow like this in his village, then the higher ground would be thicker and deeper, making driving hazardous, but this is not the Highlands, in fact, I am higher up than his work so it should be easier for him to get to work, but the rest of the people out there will probably make his journey into Edinburgh interesting.

Childrens TV programmes......

2005-01-18T16:39:00.000Z

I have just received an email from a friend, it was all about childrens tv programmes of the past, check out the site, especially if you remember Rainbow
Remember to have your sound on!

Observers

2005-01-11T21:55:00.000Z

I have just experienced two shifts with observers. It is common place that when you get an observer out with you the calls you attend are normally easy to handle, trivial and sometimes down right c**p.

Well this is not the case for me, on both shifts we were kept going constantly, on the second occasion with the observer, we had 10 calls in the space of 12 hrs, yes I know it is not a lot, but they were all jobs that required full focus on the patient and their situation. The night started out relatively slowly, but built up to an almost constant case of clearing and going for the next call. We were called to one of the local night clubs twice, back to back, it was interesting to see the observer becoming more confident and relaxed when arriving on scene at incidents. We then had the call that makes every observer think "YES this is the one for me" an RTA with 4 patients after a car left the road and rolled down an embankment. Upon our arrival, all 4 patients were out of the car and had relatively minor injuries compared to the mechanisms of the incident. I loved seeing the observers both thinking to themselves, wow, this is not how I imagined it would be in this division. I would be happy to have either of the two out with me observing again, especially if I am attending, as they may get to be more hands on!

Hogmanay 2004

2005-01-03T23:24:00.000Z

I sit here recovering still from the Edinburgh street party. I am not long out of bed after celebrating my very own 2004 Hogmanay with one of my friends.

I was working on the 31st of December at the Street party with various other dedicated volunteers from St. Andrew's Ambulance, British Red Cross and even St. John Ambulance providing part of the event medical services to the people who had chosen to come to Edinburgh to celebrate the New Year. I had a pleasant evening in one of the 4 first aid posts for the event, and to make it even more special, I was working (not planned) with my BF (He had been designated the Social Work Vehicle First Aid Escort for my post). The evening started out quite slowly, but gradually the workload increased as did the amount of alcohol people were consuming on the streets, we had a few interesting patients, but the majority were under the influence of alcohol and suffering badly, some were even at the stage that they were found sitting in their own vomit..... :( Our job as first aiders that evening was to clean them up, patch them up and ship them out to either the event, home, hospital or pass on their care to Social Services. I often ask myself why I still volunteer when I work in the Ambulance Service, the answer is easy, I love the feeling of knowing that you have helped someone. If anyone is reading this and thinks that they could volunteer some time then go ahead and give some time, go on you will love it!

My trip North

2005-01-03T23:10:00.000Z

Well I was working over Christmas, but on the 27th I was due to travel North to meet my boyfriend's parents. I made sure that the car was running ok and that I had packed enough clothes (including the emergency shirt, which my commented on) and my camera etc. I set out eventually at 12 mid day, expecting the roads to be quite bad because of the recent weather, I had an audio copy of the new Ian Rankin book to listen to whilst driving. I arrived 3 1/2 hrs later safely in Cromarty where I met my bf and his folks, now I had already met his mother, she is lovely and puts you at ease as soon as you meet here, but I was a bit worried about meeting his dad. I got out the car and thought to myself "I hope I am at the correct address" when two lads cycled passed and called out "Hi J" and I thought , yup I must be at the correct place as they think I am my bf (apparently we look quite similar....god help him!) I knocked on the door and felt my stomach twisting when it opened, I really just wanted to run away, but I missed my man so much as well. The door was answered by my bf and he invited me in and I spotted his mum immediately and strangely felt a bit more relaxed, then his dad came through and introduced himself, he is a really pleasant guy, I was not sure what I was expecting but I was made to feel at ease very quickly, The rest of the time up north I was "Dragged" around to meet various friends, some who I took to more than others. I enjoyed my time up north, it was a beautiful place to be, nice crisp weather, fresh air and stunning views, I did have a moment of panic however, we were visiting some of my bf's friends and they were discussing various things and I heard "Yeah but you would have to move back here, you couldn't do it in Edinburgh" I thought to myself "Oh my god I am loosing him already, we have not even had a fight and he is thinking about moving north and leaving me!!!!" Oh well I will have to wait and see if it comes true... I hope not :(

Festive Period

2004-12-22T03:48:00.000Z

To everyone who reads my blog, I just want to say have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I hope 2005 brings you all your wishes and is filled with happiness.

Take a moment to think about the less fortunate of us who have to work over Christmas / New Year!

Have a good one whatever you are doing.

Exams

2004-12-11T00:47:00.000Z

Well I survived the terrors of the Assessment, yes for those of you who understand the stresses of this type of assessment, then you will sympathise with me when I say that I have just finished a 3 hour written assessment after a previous on the road assessment this week with my Training Officer. All I can say is YEAH!!!!!!!!! I PASSED, I PASSED, I PASSED :)

Christmas Shopping

2004-12-09T21:49:00.000Z

Why is it that when you have a day off and you think to yourself "Oh I will go and do some shopping for prezzies whilst it is still quiet" you get to the shops and everyone else in the world has the same idea. You stand for ages trying to get to the counters to pay for the goods, stand in line waiting to find the items you are going to purchase only to be pushed, pulled and shoved all over the place by some mad woman with a SCREAMING child clinging to her!!!! Then when you think you have successfully got what you need and get to the tills to pay, the pre-pubecent teenage chewing gum machine behind the till is too busy talking to her colleague to take notice of the fact that if she does not remove her finger from her a** and do some work the queue that is forming will probably cause a crush within the tiny area in front of the counter which is surrounded by items stacked so high you cannot actually reach anything on top to buy it without causing yourself some injury. OH I hate Christmas shopping!!!! Don't get me wrong I like shopping, I like looking at things and thinking yeah that would be nice for ..... but not when the whole bloody world has gone MAD and no one actually wants to serve you in the shop!!!!!!

Anyway I am now fully de-stressed at the minute, just finished wrapping some of the items I actually did manage to purchase today, but now studying for a 2 1/2hrs written exam tomorrow before I start my night shift. Oh god how I have a great life!

p.s. if my boyfriend is reading this, your prezzies are hidden at my folks... :P

Death

2004-12-07T22:24:00.000Z

I know that it is still a taboo subject in some peoples eyes, I have recently experienced my first "Cot Death". It was a strange surreal experience, which, not withstanding the emotional aspects left me thinking about what had happened. I have spoken with some of my colleagues about the incident and when I got back to my boyfriend's flat I could not speak fully to him about it, even although I am sure he would have understood. The call was a typical call to start with, however, we were updated by the EMDC (Control) that it was a cardiac arrest of an infant, with CPR on going. It was then that it started to hit us, we were going to a baby (not long into this world) who had died. When we arrived on scene we went into auto-pilot and did what we had to do, we then transported the baby to the hospital and it was then that it started to hit us fully, seeing this baby, who looked so peaceful and doll like, lying on an adult resuscitation room bed, with the full resus team working in him. My partner left to complete her paperwork and I stayed in the room, willing the baby to start breathing, there was a moment when the team thought they had a pulse, but this was due to the CPR ongoing. After I went back to the vehicle and started to clear up with my colleague it finally hit us both, full on like a train traveling at 100mph striking us clean on in the face. We both cried, my colleague probably more than me as she has a young baby boy. We eventually cleared at the hospital and were returned to the station, where we sat and spoke about the incident with our other colleagues who were on the station. I felt so sorry for the parents, to have lost a child must be the worst thing that could ever happen. I hope I never find out how that feels.

Meeting the parents

2004-11-25T11:13:00.000Z

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 :)

Exams

2004-11-22T11:36:00.000Z

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!!!

The end of an era

2004-11-18T09:20:00.000Z

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.

Last night

2004-11-11T18:29:00.000Z

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.

Oh the decisions

2004-11-10T00:55:00.000Z

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

Time keeping.........not

2004-11-07T15:00:00.000Z

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

Do people never sleep?

2004-11-07T02:23:00.000Z

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).

Single Crewed....Not

2004-11-03T03:40:00.000Z

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 :)

Oh to be single crewed

2004-11-02T06:40:00.000Z

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!!!