Many Firsts

This is one of the reasons why I hate daylight savings. I lose one hour of sleep =.= and I had placement that day! So I had to wake up early and try and find the branch cos I can never find it.

 

I posted on my facebook status saying that the one thing that got in my way was the gate. Ppl posted to knock the gate down but I know I can't lol.

 

Because the gate is the gate around the police academy.

 

That's right. The branch is somewhere inside the police academy.

 

When I got there, there was one open gate. And a sign saying "no unauthorized persons allowed" confused as ever, I decided to park outside the gate and wait. Waited for 50 minutes (I was munching on vegechips while I wait) and finally a car came thru the gate and drove around. I followed but I lost the car XD but there were signs saying "ambulance" so I followed them. After a long drive, I finally found that car XD

 

Around 7:10am there was still no truck and still no partner. One of my crew members, who was just qualified to be a paramedic, predicted that he probably forgot to adjust the clock. Which I almost did until I checked facebook when I couldn't sleep XD but 5 mins later, we got a partner.

 

We all expected the day to be super quiet. Night crew came later and we did our usual car check.  We also expect that we get no job at all cos it's a Sunday. Lol one of the crew members said I could go home cos I had an exam to do the next day and an assignment to do. But I decided to stay, I brought my laptop with me do I can do my assignment anyway, and I know I'll do no work back at home. And my family don't expect me home til 5pm.

 

Talked a bit to the newbie paramedic and she was flipping through the tv guide and she saw the last page being a ad for one of those 'real life looking' dolls and the doll is a baby monkey wearing clothes and came with a free dummy

Newbie paramedic: *covers the price* omg how much would you pay for this?

Me: um.. *stares* about…… 50?

Newbie: *reveals the price being 49.99* that plus postage and handling.. it looks hideous!!

Me: o.o (well I can see the hideous part) it kinda does…

Newbie: what would you do with it?

Me: I would put it in a pram and tell everyone I have a baby. And if they come and ask "is it a boy or girl?"  and then they'll look in the pram to see a hairy baby and freak out.

 

The best part of the branch is that there was an arm to practice IV cannulas on! It looks like it wasn't used in a while (it was clearly obvious when the wax was peeling off when I insert the needle in). I usually insert the needle 1/3 of the way in and I should see blood coming out. But in this arm, it didn't work!

 

The crew members went to play with the arm too and stuck needles in different veins. And there was old equipment in the box too that I was like 0.0!!

Newbie paramedic: have you seen one of these before?

Me: *shakes head* nope I've only seen the longer ones

Newbie: well it's a bit different then the new ones.. I'll show you

*pulls packaging out, slides the cannula off the needle and then there was this click sound and a medal piece was attached to the sharp end of the needle*

Me: D: what's that!??!

Newbie: it's so you don't get poked by accident… but they don't make these anymore cos it's too expensive. *tries to poke herself*

 

Omg it was soo cool!!

 

*sees the partner with a massive black box*

Partner: let's see if you can do LMAs *opens the box*

Me: *excited* 0oh you got those manikins like the ones in uni!!!

 

Then he pulls out another box of bits and pieces, which also got some old equipment as well, so I was having a play with everything I could find. The partner was teaching me techniques and we managed to kill time for over an hour.

Partner: So.. you are called to a cardiac arrest patient. And you see him lying on the floor. What do you do?

Me: check for dangers!!!  (I know he's not expecting that sort of answer but I said it anyway)

Partner: ……………. And then?

Me: check for response~~~

Partner: ……… ok.. so you're shaking and shouting.. what's the next one

Me: airway!!

 

At 11am, we went off for a lunch break. Went to a bakery and the bread and rolls were massive!!! I just bought a bacon and cheese roll. We went back to the branch and we ate our lunch there and started chatting for a bit. The convo didn't really start well….

Newbie: so do you have any brothers or sisters?

To be honest I didn't mind so much it's hard to lie and say I don't have one cos of the nephews confuse the whole plot. And I VERY rarely say it but I couldn't help saying "I HAD a sister", which just confuses her even more, so I had to admit the whole thing… her poor face was literally like my emotcon 0.0!!! her eyes went huge! And she was like "OMG I'M SOOOOO SORRY!!!"

 

Our partner wanted to snooze but we had a call. It was dispatched as a 6 year old female who fell on her head. My first paediatric patient!!

 

We were all thinking of scenarios in our heads but we didn't get any further info. When we got there, it ended up being a very minor injury that didn't require an ambo at all =.= she was a bright girl. And the poor brother was in tears cos it started when they had a fight and he pushed her.

 

After that we went back to our branch, certain that we won't get any more jobs! So I took my laptop out of my car and started my assignment. The crew was distracting me by having a convo. And we were all discussing about how technology changed over the years. I was doing 2 things at once, and typed and talked at the same time. But I was mainly focusing on the convo lol. Talking about old computers and mobiles, then turned into cassettes and CDs and DVDs and now Blu-ray and all. I think it started with facebook XD and how they think that you should tell everything on facebook. And then the phone in the branch started to ring.

 

It was a call to go to the ferntree gully branch cos they predict that the next case would be around ferntree gully. On the way there we got a case to go to Lysterfield! Another long drive. Patient has gastro and diarrhea. When we got to the nursing home the newbie gave me a face mask, which I'm guessing were used for the swine flu period. It was quite fiddly to put on cos it's not like the normal face masks dentists or other ppl had.  The nurses were quite reluctant to go near the "gastro corridor" (they said that themselves) but they followed anyway. Omg the mask made it so hot when I breathe I felt like I was going to suffocate x.x it was a bit hard to talk too.

 

The patient was again, looked sort of healthy compared to patients her age. She could take a few steps to the stretcher, swing her legs on her own and obeys what we say. She was the only patient we took to hospital. I think we drove to angliss. We even had a request to go to a different hospital because it was 'convenient for the son' (?!?!) we do things that best for the patient!!! The granddaughter came while we were treating her. She seemed very close to her grandma.

 

Finished that job and we were on our way back to our branch I think when we had a dispatch to a car accident involving a 3 year old kid. And it was near angliss. My first MVA (motor vehicle accident) and that safety vest that I carried this year paid off. The accident wasn't as bad as we imagined….. in fact… they didn't need an ambo anyway… =.= the poor 3 year old kid was the opposite to that 6 year old girl we had earlier. He wouldn't let us touch him!! Our magic tricks did not work. And that 'glove being a chicken thing' that we learnt in uni was fail!! Blowing up a glove and pretending it to be a chicken just made the situation worse! We had to stay around til the car gets towed. The other driver, who ran thru a red light wasn't hurt.

 

We finished that job around 4:40pm so it was HOME TIME!!!!! At 4:55pm we turned into the street that the branch was and we had a freaking call!!!!!!!! And this was where my crew got MAD!!!!!!!!!  Computer said something like "cardiac arrest – probable death" or something like that. and it was in freaking OAKLEIGH!!!! Which is about 10-15 min drive with light and sirens. My crew was swearing every 2 seconds!!!! I never had a crew that swears this much! We were indirectly saying over the radio if they can cancel it but we had a call back saying we cant =.=""""" far out!!!!!  And then the computer updated and said "CPR REFUSED – CA PATIENT" meaning the patient has cancer.

WTH?!?!?!?!?!?!?! We're driving just to waste time!! We can't do anything but to do a MICA job and do the hard job of confirming the patient is deceased. MICA wasn't there yet =.= the crew was swearing even more!!!! And it continued when we saw the fire brigade and the police there.  The person that called looked peed off that we were the last ones to arrive. Which is understandable…. If that happened to me, I would want the paramedics first… not the fire brigade @.@

 

It was sort of my first time seeing firemen for more than 2 seconds. Holy crap! The guys were like.. twice my size. Big. Bulky. VERY muscular XD ok lets not go there. :P

I still feel intimidated by the police lol couldn't help staring at the gun that was strapped on to the thigh while thinking in my mind "shouldn't guns be less visible instead of showing it off to the public?"

 

The neighbourhood looked like they're close too. Neighbours come out and see what was going on. I was off on my own with the keys to the ambo to retrieve the spine board when I had to cross the road and a car pulled over in front of me asking if everything is ok. -.-""" "yes everything is fine" (geesh.. nosy ppl)

 

We had to stay around for a long time cos we had to get details and all for our report and then its HOME TIME!!!

Newbie: hop inside and we'll have a chat (serious tone)

Me: ok!! (I sounded cheerful for some reason.. I was sort of on a high after 1.5 hours of sleep I guess)

*hears her slam the door* (oh shoot… I think I landed in a trap…) *newbies hops in the truck*

Me: ……..*is scared* (I mean.. WHAT did I do wrong??!?!?)

Newbie: how did you feel?

(0o0o0oh… one of THOSE convos. Not again!!!)

Me: I'm fine~~ I'm perfectly fine!!!

Coincidentally after the case the song 'last day on earth' was playing on the radio. That's the second time it done that…And it was one of those songs that shouldn't be played in moments like this. I find it quite annoying. Even tho I love the song but now wasn't a good time!