No posting yesterday because I couldn't get to a workable computer at any point during the day. The computer at work wasn't working, and I ended up going to my brother's house after my shift because we were going to see the film 'Constantine'.

(I could give you my review of the film, but I try not to swear too much on this site... Lets just say that the acting was awful, the story wasn't that inspired, and it was a very poor reflection on the themes of the comic on which it is based. My brother hated it more than I did.)

Yesterday was busy, but busy in a good way in that most of the calls that I got actually warranted an ambulance. Actually, if I had been dropped on my head repeatedly as a child leading to me believing in the supernatural, I would have thought that there was something strange going on. The majority of my jobs, and a lot of the jobs that I heard being given out over the radio were for people having seziures.

The first call of the day was to a known epileptic who had been fitting while in the bath. Luckily his father heard him thrashing against the side of the bath and pulled him out before he could drown. He was still quite drowsy, confused and a bit 'punchy', normal for people who have just finished having a fit. The ambulance crew got there, and as the patient was a know epileptic, and was feeling better he was left at home with the instruction that should he have another fit, then he should go to hospital.

I then bounced from that job to another young male who was having recurrent epileptic fits, in over an hour he hadn't managed to recover from a fit. He had three fits, and was still extremely 'floppy'. The crew asked for my help in controlling him in the back of the ambulance, so I left the car and helped keep his airway clear while we 'blued' him into the local hospital. He had one more fit in the back of the ambulance, which I never like dealing with, as there are a few too many hard surfaces you can injure yourself on.

The ambulance crew then returned me to to my car, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was still there, and that the wheels were still attached.

I then ended up going back to my first epileptic, as he had suffered another seizure. This time the ambulance crew took him to hospital for a check up. There are a couple of things that can reduce the effectiveness of anti-epileptic medication, and while the patients family believed that he had been drinking recently, it is always a good idea to rule out the other causes for an increase in seizure frequency.

Then there was a hoax call for a 'pedestrian vs. car', which had me, the HEMS doctors, an ambulance and the police trying in vain to find a victim. Great.

Next was a middle aged man, who was having his first Heart attack. The call was given as a chest pain, and when I walked in the room and saw how ashen he was, I was breaking out the oxygen and medication. He gave a classic history and description of a heart attack, luckily the ambulance was quick in turning up and the job went like clockwork, with the patient getting transported to hospital very quickly.

Then I went to a patient with cancer of the bowel who had abdominal pain, an easy job in one way, but rather shocking in another because the patient was the same age as me...

My final (late) job was to a one year old child who had been...wait for it... fitting. The normal type of febrile fit. When a child has a temperature that rises quickly, they can often have a seizure. While a medical emergency, it's something that, because we deal with them a lot we find it an 'easy job'. Essentially you cool the child down, and give them oxygen.

In more general news, the Sat-Nav screen on one of our ambulances was stolen the other night. Someone broke into the ambulance to steal a bit of equipment that helps the community. It says it all for some of the people in this area really...