Money Grabbing Again!

I know I know, I said I was having 7 days off but on Wednesday night a mate from my station phoned me and asked for a favour. Could I cover his late car shift (on overtime of course!) as he couldn't do it. To be honest I wasn't that keen on doing it but as I had nothing planned for the next day I said yes. After all, the way the current economy is I'd be a fool not to. This constant stream of overtime wont last, I just know it. Grab it while you can I say!
It was a quiet shift, for me it was anyway. All the day crews had been rushed of their feet, by the time I started things were calming down. I did an hours standby at a local DR's surgery where I started to read my book by Stuart Gray http://www.mondaybooks.com/Life_And_Death/lifeanddeath.html, he's another Paramedic with a bloghttp://theparamedicsdiary.blogspot.com/ . I thought I was going to get a call to back up a crew at an RTA but I wasn't needed. Next thing I heard on the radio was the crew calling up for Fire & Rescue as they couldn't free the patient. Well they knew where I was if they needed me.
I got my first job, it was Cat C non-traumatic back pain (Cat C meaning low priority call). I t was to a young guy who for no obvious reason developed severe lumber pain. When I got there he was in absolute agony. I have never seen anyone with this sort of problem in so much pain. Usually it's a bit of gas & air and then off to the hospital. Not this time. I ended up giving him 10mg of Morphine. Eventually after a combo of Morphine and 2 bottles of gas & air he started to fell slightly more comfortable, the exception being when his back went into spasm. Although after the drugs he did say at one point that he felt completely pissed! It turns out that he is best friends with one of the guys at work and also knows several members of my family who do a specific job. I'm not going to say too much about that. I went with the double EMT crew (as I had given Morphine) to hospital. On arrival at hospital it was absolutely heaving, ambulances everywhere with crews queuing to handover their patients. We left him in good spirits albeit still suffering the odd agonising spasm.

My 2ND and final job was a chest pain about 2 miles from base. I received no updates on the way so naturally assumed that I was going to male/female of mature years. Actually it was to an 11 year old. She had recently been diagnosed with chrons disease and was still being fed via a nasal tube. After doing my obs the crew turned up and got her on to the ambulance. She had left sided chest pain and it radiated into her left arm. Her 12 lead ECG showed no acute changes. So after discussing the various pain relief options with her and her mum, the patient declined pain relief. All we could do was transport her to hospital.

I still have 3 days off........................................filled with all sorts of things such as taking the kids to the cinema (movies), swimming, and laying wooden flooring.
Definitely no more shifts until Monday!!!!!!