Staying Above Water

I’m working in Boston as I write this. It’s been a strangely busy day here, too; I don’t know what the cause has been, but I do know that I’m hoping for an easier night than the day has been.

Probably the biggest weirdness of today has been that we transported 3 vented patients today. The reason i say that is simply because I’ve gone months without having to see one and over the past two weeks I’ve had four of them. The rub today is that they were all adults. One of them is a woman with Guillian-Barre Syndrome. She was in tough shape – in a lot of discomfort, a tracheotomy in place, and no way to speak. And she was pretty scared.

I can’t say I blame her. If I were in her position, I’m sure I’d be scared also. After all, if a person is unable to speak or breathe without help, the feeling must be totally terrifying.

We hope that she is able to recover.

As for the rest of the day, it has been tiring. I believe I will attempt to sleep some tonight, and tomorrow I have an appointment to replace some of my CPAP supplies. I want to go back to a nose cone because I’ve been unable to keep a seal for long enough periods lately. I think it’s affecting my ability to get decent sleep, so I’ll try to fix that. I want to get as much good quality sleep as I can.

And off to bed, hopefully to be disturbed only rarely.