Face First

Another slow day. A refusal -- an old lady in a parking lot hit the gas instead of the brake and ran into a building. Air bags went off. She was sitting on a bench when we got there. Alert oriented with no complaints. Just wanted a ride home.

Other call was at a nursing home. Guy had been coughing up phlegm for three days. COPDer with a great big distended abdomen which he said was the result of gaining a lot of weight. His skin was warm and dry, good cap refill, but his BP was 78/48. Pulse was 104. Couldn't get an IV to save me. Couldn't see one. Couldn't feel one. Tried by anatomy, didn't even draw blood from the skin.

I'll have to follow up to see what what wrong with him.

***

I've had a few nagging injuries lately none of which have panned out into anything.

A few weeks ago, I tried trouble lifting my right arm up, but attributed it to working out. Couple days later, I was fine.

Then one day I banged the heel of my left hand against a bed at a nursing home. I was trying to pull an oxygen cannula off a portable 02 tank, and when I finally tugged hard enough, it came off, and my hand flew into the bed. I really thought I had broken something. For a week, everytime I had to hold my arm out to brace myself, it hurt. Then it went away. I guess it was just a bruise.

The last three days I have felt a cramp in my back on the right side, and when it cramps I get this lightning bolt of pain shooting into my spine. My guess is when the muscle cramps it hits a nerve. It happened less today than yesterday and hasn't happened since this morning. It was like getting these irregular electrical shocks that cause me to jerk and shout "Ow!" Maybe someone was poking needles in me with a voodoo doll.

I got 2 flexoril last night and by mistake took both at the same time, rather than one every six hours. When I got home -- it was a strange slow drive through the night -- I got out of my car, walked into the house, up the stairs, down the hall into the bedroom, and flopped down face first. Not to wake up until the morning.