Fever
Today has been the day of priority calls. Right off the bat we got a call for chest pain at a stand-by ER. The normal chest pain call. The guy seemed to know a bit too much about it, you know, complaining about jaw and arm pain, etc. He had a psych history. The entire way to the hospital he kept saying, "I'm ready for the urine specimen whenever you are." Nice.
Second call was back to the same place for a person with chest pain. My first thought was that the patient we just brought in probably caught a cab and came back to the stand-by ER since he enjoyed the ride the first time. Nope. Different patient. He had chest pain earlier in the day- now he just had numbness to his left arm and shoulder and tightness in his chest. Normal workup and transport.
After that almost all my calls were for a "fever." I think out of four patients, the lowest temperature was 104. Completely ridiculous; not to mention that it wasn't their only problem. Most had really low blood pressure, SOB, etc.
We only did two actual transports other than emergency calls-very unusual. One went to a nursing facility out west-clear across the state. She only weighed about 80 pounds, it was snowing terribly and the roads were slick, so we were moving at a snail's pace. She was in agony by the time we got her there. She said her tailbone was killing her from sitting like that for so long. I also did a transport to a local nursing home. The had fractured her hip a while back and was in the nursing home for physical therapy. She told her therapist that something didn't feel right, but the therapist said she was fine. Needless to say, she broke her hip again-during therapy. She was a very nice lady and she told me about her daughter and how she had bought a new house so she could have her own room and be able to get around better. She was excited to go home soon. We chatted for the entire ride. I plan on bringing her flowers next shift. I told her she was in my prayers.
I was definitely tired when shift ended. No sleep for us. The worst part-I start work again at 0900. It's 0830 right now :(
Second call was back to the same place for a person with chest pain. My first thought was that the patient we just brought in probably caught a cab and came back to the stand-by ER since he enjoyed the ride the first time. Nope. Different patient. He had chest pain earlier in the day- now he just had numbness to his left arm and shoulder and tightness in his chest. Normal workup and transport.
After that almost all my calls were for a "fever." I think out of four patients, the lowest temperature was 104. Completely ridiculous; not to mention that it wasn't their only problem. Most had really low blood pressure, SOB, etc.
We only did two actual transports other than emergency calls-very unusual. One went to a nursing facility out west-clear across the state. She only weighed about 80 pounds, it was snowing terribly and the roads were slick, so we were moving at a snail's pace. She was in agony by the time we got her there. She said her tailbone was killing her from sitting like that for so long. I also did a transport to a local nursing home. The had fractured her hip a while back and was in the nursing home for physical therapy. She told her therapist that something didn't feel right, but the therapist said she was fine. Needless to say, she broke her hip again-during therapy. She was a very nice lady and she told me about her daughter and how she had bought a new house so she could have her own room and be able to get around better. She was excited to go home soon. We chatted for the entire ride. I plan on bringing her flowers next shift. I told her she was in my prayers.
I was definitely tired when shift ended. No sleep for us. The worst part-I start work again at 0900. It's 0830 right now :(
posted by Ambulance Girl at 06:31
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