Today

Second of two day shifts, first job was interesting though. It was a Cat A fitting call. So many of these calls turn out to be known Epileptic patients who have usually stopped fitting once we have arrived and although they are mostly still out of it or groggy (known as post ictal) they are fine. A couple of sets of observations and some O2 is usually all that is required. Most don't go or even need to go to hospital and are left in the care of a relative. This call was different. My crew mate recognised the property, he'd been there recently. We were ushered in and up the stairs to find a lady, about 80 years old, actively seizing. Now the strange thing was that she was aware of what was going on. It turns out that she has had 3 previous episodes like this and on the last occaision she was diagnosed with a left sided brain tumour. That was the call my crew mate went to.
We popped her on some O2 and I put a line in and administered 5mg of Diazemuls. It worked a treat and she stopped seizing. She was now living with her daughter and son-in-law as a result of her current condition and her daughter travelled with her to hospital. The patient was now pretty much back to normal, which was good but we still needed to take her in just for observation if nothing else. As we were going in I could see her looking at the ceiling of the ambulance, a single tear rolling down her right cheek. I wondered what she was thinking of. Was she thinking 'How much longer do I have?'
Getting old is a scary thought.

I checked up on her later this morning, she had a big smile on her face and both her and her daughter said thanks.
That's good enough for me, jobs like that make it all worth while.