Nee-nar Nee-nar

I went on my ambulance shift yesterday. It was COOL. i cant quite stress how amazing it was. I think it was the first time in my medical career so far that i’ve truely enjoyed myself, and if it wasnt for the fact my parents would disown me, i would quit medical school right now and become a paramedic.

It was a long day. I had to be there for 7am, so got up about 5ish to allow time to cycle and find the place, since i didnt know if that meant they left at 7 or you just had to be there at 7. So i rocked up and met the people i’d be with – Ed and Paul. They were really good guys. Whereas with doctors you either have to discuss work or possibly a wider issue like the NHS if you’re lucky and they’re all very serious and professional, with these people they actually just talked like real people, and it was all funny and they were laughing. If you laugh in hospital people look at you as if yuo’ve gone mad and you have no place to be around patients if you are having a good time.

Anyway, they gave me a paramedic jacket to wear, and we went off on our first call. Being in the back of an ambulance is like being in a ship in a hurricane, i swear down. You get thrown all over the place and even having taken my travel sickness pills which normally make me able to cope with anything, i still was feeling slightly queezy. The first guy was on a bus and had fainted, so we checked him over but he didnt want to come into hospital. It was cool since all the passengers had had to disembark the bus and they looked at me with respect as i was climbing out the ambulance.

The next guy was about a 20 minute ride with full blue lights and sirens and everything, so luckily i’d got to be in the front for that and it was amazing going so quick and seeing all the cars moving out of your way. i loved it. we got there and there was already a rapid repsonse paramedic there. the guy was unconscious so we put in a nasal and a mouth airway in and got him on the ambulance. It was a bit touch and go on the way back. I had to keep suctioning mucus and stuff that was blocking his airway. He later died in hospital unfortunately of a stroke caused by brain cancer which noone had known about.

I’m not sure i can remember all the patients. there was a baby who had fallen onto her head but i think she was ok despite the mother panicing like anything. there was a guy who’d fallen and done something nasty looking to his knee, and guy with angina, a really old guy who’d just fallen and couldnt get up so pressed his emergency button, an old lady in respiratory distress. i think that was about it. it went a bit dull at the end when we got the lady to the hospital but it was full so we had to babysit her. She still wasnt in an hour later, so the next crew came and took over since it was 7pm and the end of the shift. I was shattered at the end of it but had had the most amazing time ever.

I really loved it incase you havent got that message!

Wednesday i went to a medic’s BBQ and got trashed on half a bottle of gin so hopefully now thy’re all scared of me as being a ‘bad girl’.

This morning I cycled all the way to the hospital for a clinc at 9 only to find it wasnt happening, which is a bit annoying. I’m gonna have to cycle back again later for more teaching. Far too much cycling.