As I write this I am watching a light snow fall across the yard, much of it on the White Pine trees we have on each side of the house. So light, in fact, that it is barely discernible against the gray sky. But it is indeed snowing. It has been off an on since last night. That said, however, I can see the road from my window as well, and it doesn't look too bad. But the real test will be driving to work later today. Hopefully it won't be a terrible drive out to Brentwood, but we'll see then.
I was pleased at how quickly my National Registry card got back to me as I only sent my paperwork for renewal to them just over 2 weeks ago. Now I have to turn that around and send a copy of it and my CPR card to the State to get my new license. I'll do that this weekend, and historically they're pretty good about it too.
Yesterday was a really weird work day. We only did 4 calls, but they were timed badly, and one of them was a winner. That one was a 49 year-old female who reportedly took an unknown quantity of both Valium and Ativan. Her husband had found her in bed, extremely somnolent and incoherent, and he'd told us that she had been over-medicating herself for a few days prior with possibly other medications. She indeed was incoherent, interspersed with periods of somnolence, akathisia (a type of jitteriness associated with certain medications, including benzodiazepines), and mild combativeness. When she spoke, nothing she said made any sense and her statements were extremely disjointed. Trying to get anything done, in terms of assessment, was nearly impossible because she was so fidgety.
I had a hard time patching in to the hospital, so when we got there, I don't think they realized how messed up this patient was as the charge nurse was looking at us somewhat skeptically until the patient started to try to get off of the stretcher and I had to hold her down. I don't know what they did to settle her, but she was pretty well out of it by the time we left.
One of the other calls we got was for a person stuck inside of a vehicle. Originally called to the fire department as a lock-in, and when we arrived we found this 37 year-old female who'd been in her car for over 24 hours and was unable to get out because the battery died and she has power locks.... That struck me as weird because even with power locks it shouldn't be difficult to open the doors manually. In any case, when we got to her, we classified her as being mildly to moderately hypothermic. We got her in the ambulance and started the heat. By the time we got to the hospital she was at least a little less cold, but she was still a little slow to respond to questions we asked. Most of them she was able to answer, but she didn't know what day of the week it was.
I don't know what the rest of the day will bring, but we'll see. I haven't gotten any more information on the patient I wrote about on Monday, but I'm still working on it.
Stay warm and dry.
I was pleased at how quickly my National Registry card got back to me as I only sent my paperwork for renewal to them just over 2 weeks ago. Now I have to turn that around and send a copy of it and my CPR card to the State to get my new license. I'll do that this weekend, and historically they're pretty good about it too.
Yesterday was a really weird work day. We only did 4 calls, but they were timed badly, and one of them was a winner. That one was a 49 year-old female who reportedly took an unknown quantity of both Valium and Ativan. Her husband had found her in bed, extremely somnolent and incoherent, and he'd told us that she had been over-medicating herself for a few days prior with possibly other medications. She indeed was incoherent, interspersed with periods of somnolence, akathisia (a type of jitteriness associated with certain medications, including benzodiazepines), and mild combativeness. When she spoke, nothing she said made any sense and her statements were extremely disjointed. Trying to get anything done, in terms of assessment, was nearly impossible because she was so fidgety.
I had a hard time patching in to the hospital, so when we got there, I don't think they realized how messed up this patient was as the charge nurse was looking at us somewhat skeptically until the patient started to try to get off of the stretcher and I had to hold her down. I don't know what they did to settle her, but she was pretty well out of it by the time we left.
One of the other calls we got was for a person stuck inside of a vehicle. Originally called to the fire department as a lock-in, and when we arrived we found this 37 year-old female who'd been in her car for over 24 hours and was unable to get out because the battery died and she has power locks.... That struck me as weird because even with power locks it shouldn't be difficult to open the doors manually. In any case, when we got to her, we classified her as being mildly to moderately hypothermic. We got her in the ambulance and started the heat. By the time we got to the hospital she was at least a little less cold, but she was still a little slow to respond to questions we asked. Most of them she was able to answer, but she didn't know what day of the week it was.
I don't know what the rest of the day will bring, but we'll see. I haven't gotten any more information on the patient I wrote about on Monday, but I'm still working on it.
Stay warm and dry.
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