Dont get too close
It snowed all day, starting around noon. It was a very dry flaky snow. Only about 2" accumulated.
We got called right away at beginning of shift for a combative female patient in one of the code rooms. When we got there she was
quiet but had a foamy mouth. Nurses thought she was on a crack high, but it looked like just a seizure. They wanted her restrained. One of the nurses was explaining how they were inserting a foley when the patient squirted some pee in her face and she got some on the mouth. It takes a lot to gross out an emergency room nurse, but this did. She went and wiped alcohol on her lips. We then got called to escort the patient to CT scan. She became combative in CT and had to be restrained again. The scan showed some prior trauma, possibly a tumor. Later one of the techs was saying she had a lumbar puncture, the doc was suspecting meningitis.
One of our drunks was found in the waiting room. He was too drunk to walk so I suspect he was dropped off. The shelter doesn't want him, he cant behave there. He was here last night ( I was off, not here) and he kicked at one of the techs who deftly avoided the kick. We stood by while he changed. He had a real mean streak, but was borderline cooperative. He was added to the list of contenders for "most likely to succeed TK as the "most frequent and most obnoxious chronic drunk." TK was found frozen DOA before Christmas behind a bush, on one of the coldest nights of the year. You have to be sober to be admitted to the shelter, so we get the ones that don't meet their admission criteria.
My son called. He went on his first fire call. He is 18 and just completed his training the night before. They gave him his minitor pager Tuesday night. He was a junior since he was 14, but couldn't ride on calls for 4 years. The call was an elderly diff breather who came to our place, via AMR, which is the second backup to the town ambulance. He said he was nervous. I said it will pass, but to write it down, his first call. He will be starting Firefighter 1 training in about 3 weeks. He is still in high school. He will get some good experience. There was a 3 car fatal Tuesday on the interstate.
