I'm Doing?

One of the good things about keeping a journal is it enables you to remember what you have done. I try to write each entry within hours of ending my shift, but sometimes (like now) I write it the next morning, even though it will be back dated to post as yesterday.

I worked for many years and did not write anything down. Ask me what I did in that time and it will be hard for me to fill a page. Here it is the next day and I am having a hard time remembering what I did yesterday. I know I did at least four calls. Come back to me, memory.

There was a seventeen year old girl with asthma who said she had had an asthma attack at work, but she was breathing fine with clear lungs when we got there.

There was a man who'd had a brief period of dysphagia for the second time in two days. We took him in and the hospital was very overcrowded and we had to wait in triage for over forty minutes. To the hospital's credit, shortly after we arrived, they asked for the patient's condition. I said, "Resolved TIA." So we waited while more serious patients were processed. Then when we got in the back we had to find a bed. We found one in the hallway that looked like a patient had just gotten out of it -- maybe discharged or maybe just gone to the rest room. My partner quickly stripped it, then went to get sheets while I stood by the stretcher with the patient. A moment later a nurse and another EMT came around the corner, spotted the stretcher, and tried to make a getaway with it. "Hey, it's already claimed," I said. They looked frustrated and moved off down the crowded hallway looking for another one.

We did an respiratory infection -- a young man with a fever, coughing up brown phlegm.

And then my favorite -- the chest pain at the Alzheimer's place. I usually say, "Where's your pain?" They answer, "What pain?" "You had chest pain?" "I did?" This time I asked, "How are you going?" She answered, "I'm doing?"

At least we had signs we could go on. The lady had an afib in the 100-140 range with no history of it. Our protocol says we can't give cardizem (which slows the rate) unless the rate is 150. I interpret that as an afib that might range from 130-170. The best I could capture on a strip was 129. Her vitals were okay. Her pressure was 140/90. The only symptom was she wasn't her normal lively self. She denied any pain or problem. I gave her supportive care. The hospital gave her cardizem.