Stat

If forgot to mention yesterday when I came into work, the operations manager presented me with a plaque for ten years of service. I also got a gold pin, and I get a free gift from a catalog of gifts. I think I will take the set of steak knives.

I was actually sort of touched by the gesture.

Did four back to back calls to start the day, then nothing.

The first call was a legitamete COPD. I gave the man a breathing treatment and we went to the hospital on a priority. he also had a CHF history, and sometimes when you give a CHFer a breathing treatment, the next thing you know they are frothing with edema. Better flash at the hospital then in the ambulance. I asked him how he was doing-- he was sucking away on the treatment, then he takes the treatment out of his mouth and says, "You know, I was in the Navy and back in Europe, they exposed us, and there was some shit and I ain't been right, and that hypertension medicine they give me, fucked up my sex life, and that's the truth."

So I guess he was breathing better.

Then we did a 102 year old lady with dementia from a nursing home who was a DNR. They thought she was having chest pain beacuse she was grabbing at her chest. She didn't appear in any distress, and when I asked her if she had any pain, she said no. They still wanted her sent out. The ER wasn't happy. They are still backed up from yesterday.

A ninety-two year old lady who had diarrhea a week ago and who has felt dry since decided she needed to go to the ER and get hydrated because she felt she wasn't getting enough water to drink. She said, she called her doctor and he agreed she should go to the ER. The ER was not happy.

Then we went to an adult day care center. They told us we didn't need the stretcher, the man could walk. We brought the stretcher in anyway. They said the elderly man had a fever and seemed weak. They called his doctor, the doctor's office said the doctor was in the ER today and he could examine the patient down there. They said they called us because he had no other way for him to get there. They wrote a note to the ER staff saying the doctor was to see the man stat. The ER had a laugh over that one.