Small Sights

Two sights from the day:

1) Standing outside an old woman's house looking at the paint peeling on her back porch steps.

2) Sitting on the bench seat in the back of the ambulance, squirting cleaning spray on drops of blood on the floor, then cleaning them up with a towel.

Two small views. They are what I noticed today.

***

We took a chronic patient to the hospital with back pain. She'd been there a few days before for the same thing. Her belly was distended. She said she hadn't had a bowel movement for 13 days. Her vitals were fine.

The old woman's who's house I was standing outside of pushed her lifeline alarm because she wanted someone to check her out. She didn't want to go to the hospital. Little old lady. The house reeked of cigarettes. It was the worst I had ever smelled it. It was like she smoked four packs a day for fifty years and had never once opened the windows of her house. I told my preceptee I would be outside if he needed me or had any questions. I stood outside the house and looked at the peeling paint and thought about the tiny old lady laying in her bed who didn't want to go to the hospital, and I felt depressed about it.

The last call was for a manager who passed out at a Fast Food restaurant. I always am amazed at how dirty fast food restaurants are in the back. They were busy in there. It was at lunch time. They didn't stop for us. She was sitting in a chair in the narrow hallway by the walk-in freezer, but there was so much traffic, we just had to get her out into the ambulance. The blood on the floor was hers -- the results of my preceptee's IV.

I am not used to cleaning blood out of the back of the ambulance. One, I pride myself on leaving a clean back, but two, when I do make a mess, my partner cleans it up while I write the run form. Today, I wwas the partner who cleaned it up. My preceptee apologized. I told him, no problem.

Did another call for an elderly woman who tripped and cut her chin. We had to take her a half hour away to the fartherest hospital because that's where the retirement community's affiliated doctor's were -- not that they were going to be the one's sewing her up. I drove. My partner's complained about the long bumpy ride. I guess i have to take the blame for the bumpy part.