This will be the first of two posts today, the later one will follow when I have more details on an upcoming project. Meanwhile this one is being written at insomnia o'clock.

I was supposed to be at work on Saturday, and I'm supposed to be on night shifts this week, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do them - you see I am an injured little EMT for the moment.

But please, no need for sympathy, because it was all my own fault.

A couple of days ago, when I was working night-shifts, I got called to what would later turn out to be a homeless heroin user, who had pain in - guess it - his injection site. I mentioned this job in passing on last Tuesday's post. What I didn't tell you was that - while my ninja breaking and entering skills were useful in gaining access to the patient, I needed to replace the padlock. So I leaned over the gate, and it was either this, or the pair of scissors that I have in my shirt pocket but one of my ribs got broken.

So it's been painful - but I've broken ribs before (my famous 'diving on a bandage' experience, plus my 'wind up a drunk until he hits you' moment). So I'm pretty used to what happens - I get pain, I ignore pain, it gets better.

Unfortunately, on Friday I helped a crew carry a lump heavy patient down a couple of flights of stairs (not the patients fault, he wasn't fat so much, but instead just 'extra-large'). Well it appears that I put a bit too much strain on the rib - and it's now more painful than when I originally broke it. Now - this shouldn't be a problem on the RRU, as you seldom have to lift patients, but unfortunately the bags that you have to carry into the patient's homes are heavy. I don't know how much they weigh (perhaps that will be a project for a later date), but I think it will delay my healing.

Pain I can deal with (I just wince a bit, but act manly and ignore it, or dose myself up on painkillers), but doing stuff that will slow the healing process is not a wise thing to do. So I'm taking some time off sick. It's not something I enjoy doing, if only because I get bored at home, but in the long run I think it'll be the best thing for me to do.

I expect I'll get a phone call from work in the morning to ask what is wrong with me, and I'll tell them. Then I suppose they will ask if I filled out an 'adverse incident' form, which I didn't as it was my own silly fault. Then they might offer counselling - but they normally wait until you return to work for that.

It's a bad time to go sick, as we are desperate to get our ORCON times up to standard (ORCON is the percentage of emergency calls we get to within eight minutes - I may just have mentioned it previously...) So I am feeling a bit guilty, but if I have real troubles in just putting my seatbelt on, then I think I need a little time to recuperate.

The real shame is that I am going to be missing some night shifts - which are the ones I really enjoy.