Landed safe and well - met up with Jeannie. All is good - more details later. Plus pictures.

I would have posted this from Houston Airport, if their WiFi network didn’t require you to tell them what state you live in. 

Please, no jokes about the ‘state’ of my life.

I mean, how hard can it be to realise that perhaps, just perhaps, in an international airport you have the slightest chance that one or two of the people who would like to use your network may not actually live in America.  So this post has been posted at the same time as the last post, which is basically as soon as I can get some form of Internet access.  Make sense of that last sentence if you dare.

My fears were well founded, and I did miss my connecting flight – I feel bad because Jeannie is picking me up from the airport, and it means she has had to change her plans at basically the last minute.  For me, it means I have an extra two hours in Huston (which is rather warm, if completely overcast), and I spent much of that time sitting in a sports bar drinking bottled Heineken.

So far everyone has been helpful, friendly and polite, with perhaps the exception of the border control people who just looked really tired, and incredibly fed up.  So they were polite, but you could tell that their heart wasn’t really in it (unlike John, my bartender in the Sky Bar).

Oh yes, I got ‘selected’ again at Huston, so it’s not just the British who think I look a bit dodgy.  The difference with being selected in Houston was that I didn’t spend five minutes with the officer talking about how impossible it is to get a decent cup of tea when abroad.  Instead the Americans made me take my boots off, and ran a metal detector over me, and rooted around in my bag.  I really had to bite my tongue to stop myself from making a joke along the lines of “Take my shoes off?  Don’t you know that my sweaty socks are a chemical weapon” – I thought better of it, being anally examined by these folks is something I didn’t really want to happen.

I guess they are just targeting stunningly good looking men who are travelling on their own.

Still I should be alright after a simple little internal flight…right?

This is probably the fastest post I’ve ever done, it’s definitely the highest, as I am currently cruising 36,000 feet above sea level at a speed of 597 mph.  I know this because I am sitting here watching the little in-flight display that is embedded in the chair in front of me.

While I really don’t like flying (I’m 6’1”, and fly economy, guess why I don’t like flying), and this is the longest I’ve ever flown, it is also one of the more pleasant flights because I am sat at the very back of the plane (so there are no children kicking me in the back),  I also have an aisle seat and there is no-one sitting next to me.  This has given me a fair bit more room than I am accustomed to.

The in-flight display has a little graphic of where the plane is, and I was upset to discover that, even though we are flying over the continent of North America, I still have over five hours of flying before I reach Houston.

Can I just plead ignorance in not knowing that Houston is in Texas, and therefore in the South of America, leaving me flying the length of the country.

I’m ever so slightly worried that I’ll miss my connecting flight – but on the positive side, the weather in Huston might be nice and sunny.  So while I don’t want to get stuck there, it would be nice to work on a bit of a tan.

Rather obviously I can’t post this from the plane itself, but will instead have to wait until I’ve landed and found a hotspot.

I'm in the departure lounge as I type this. once more I was subjected to higher than normal security searches, I guess they don't like men who are travelling on their own. I suppose that it doesn't help that, under a certain light, I look a little 'swarthy'.

I have small children trunning around my ankles, and to be honest, they are driving me mad - I just hope that none of them are sitting too close to me on the plane.

10 hours on a plane, here is hoping that...

(a) I have an aisle seat.
(b) There are no children near me.
(c) That I'll be able to slepp (being awake for 26 hours so far would make this one likely).
(d) That my connection in Houston goes smoothly.

and

(e) That the plane doesn't crash flaming into the sea.

I say that (e) is the one I'm hoping for the most...

Later today I fly out to Seattle for a couple of days.

I get the first train from Barking (at 5:27, and given that I slept through 3 alarms yesterday, I won’t be sleeping tonight) to Victoria where I get the Gatwick Express to the airport.  At 09:30 I fly out to Houston, landing 10 hours later at 13:30 local time.  One hour later I catch a connecting flight to Seattle lasting four and a half hours, landing at Seattle airport at 17:08 local time.

All this depends on the plane not crashing into the Atlantic (not that I’m a nervous flyer, but I suspect that there will be some calming alcohol therapy beforehand).

I leave Seattle on the 5th of May at 11:40 local time, landing back at Gatwick on the 6th of May at 9:55.

I get to miss the election, which is a happy side effect of this trip.  So who knows what the state of the country will be when I return…

During the trip I shall be in the tender care of Jeannie Cool from IRC, and I’ll be meeting up with some different folks, and at least one ex-pat.

I shall have my mobile phone with me (0790 325 7650), and will hopefully be checking my email every so often (even if I have to become Starbucks best customer), so if you are in Seattle and are at a loose end, feel free to get in contact with me, so I can buy you a drink.

I asked for places to go  and things to do – and I’ll be trying to fit in as many of them as I can.

So for the next few days you will have to put up with me talking about museums, galleries, theatres and (more likely) the floor of many, many Seattle bars.

This, of course, is assuming those wacky Americans let me into the country in the first place.

I often moan about GP's that leave their patients, who are seriously ill, alone in their waiting rooms, or outside in the street haveing a cigarette. But until today I'd never been to a dentist (which might explain the state of my teeth *ho-ho*)

The patient was a 42 year old female who was 'shaking' on the dentist chair, I arrived and the patient was still in the chair, and was being given oxygen and reassurance from the dentist.

The patient had a long history of these episodes, and the dentist gave me a complete handover, including the social history of the patient, and while I was assessing the patient was still spending time reassuring her. The patient was not suffering from anything serious, but she agreed to go to the hospital for a quick check-up.

I must admit I was really impressed by this dentist for actually caring for their patient - and it is only as I sit writing this that I realise that I'm impressed at a healthcare professional that is actually doing their job.

Isn't that sad...

This didn't happen to me, but was overheard on the radio and related to me by someone who knows someone in Control (yes it's vague, but rest assured that it did actually happen).

A call came into Control that a young woman had a foot injury. It was prioritized and a there was no ambulance to immediately send, so it was put in the queue of low priority calls.

A short time later, a call came in asking where the ambulance was as the patient was actually a victim of a hanging.

An ambulance was immediately despatched and HEMS (Helicopter Medical Service) was also activated.

When the crew turned up, the patient wasn't hanging, but instead her foot had been run over by a pram. There was no obvious injury. The impression that has been given is that the caller lied to Control in order to get an ambulance quicker.

Actually, I know that they lied, but to say how I know this would potentially break confidentiality

And you wonder why I sometimes want to stab people in the eyes with a wooden stick...

I realise there is a difference between people who have no understanding of how serious their injury or illness is (and therefore get a higher priority than they would if a medical professional were examining them), but this is a pretty cynical attempt to get their pizza delivered trip to hospital quicker than someone who more genuinely requires an ambulance.

This act of bastardry could well have meant that someone who really needed an ambulance had to wait longer to get to hospital. This it turn potentially puts lives in danger. That is not counting how much it cost to activate the helicopter, or the cost if someone had been run over by the ambulance as it raced to the scene.

I know there are some folks from the police service who read this, so a quick question - Is it against the law to do this to the emergency services and if so would it be realistic to have the person charged? I understand you can be charged with "wasting police time", can this be translated to wasting any emergency services time? Once again, this shouldn't be directed to people who are just a bit dim, but towards those who are cynically manipulative of the system.

Or can we just take them round the corner and beat them up?

So there I was, pulling up to a job (male fitting in street), the ambulance was already there (having been dispatched from the same station as me, only two minutes earlier).

Then I heard a lound bang, and thought the bottom had dropped off the car - the crew on scene, and the police who were there all looked in my direction.

My front tyre had burst.

There I was stuck by the side of the road waiting for the tyre fitter to come and change my tyre. I may well have a spare tyre in the back of the car, but if I fit it, and it later falls off, then I'm to blame.

I returned to station to find a new wallpaper on the station computer...

"Brand new tyre required for Vauxhall Astra FRU, All enquiries to J2 station c/o Tom Reynolds".

I love my workmates...

Other jobs done today was a 70 year old male, found dead by his son at 7am. There was nothing that we could do except try and provide some support for his son. There have also been two people having seizures, I go to a lot of seizures on the car.

I also went to a woman who had returned from two months in India with a high temperature (and having not taken any anti-malaria medication). She had been there for the arranged marriage of her son, and was depressed because her son was not happy with the marriage. What can you say to her while you are waiting for the ambulance to turn up?

There was the usual "chest pain in a GP surgery", the GP was nowhere to be seen, and the patient (who was mainly suffering from difficulty in breathing) was laying nearly flat on an examination bed without any oxygen. So the noraml sort of GP job.

My last job (so far) was "Collapsed male, life status unconfirmed, caller cannot remain on scene", it was by one of our parks, so there was a high chance that is was a drunk. He was indeed drunk, and walked off when woken up.

Just another high pressure job in this dangerous city...

I get so many calls that are top priority because of "Difficulty in breathing" or "Altered breathing", and when I turn up there is nothing wrong with their breathing (except they are maybe crying, whimpering, or have a runny nose).

So I've just come from a chest pain job which was sent to me as "Normal breathing" - and when I turn up the patient is hyperventilating (breathing way too fast). The one time that someone really does have altered breathing and I'm the last to know...

I spent an hour calming her down and getting her breathing back to normal - I really should work on my hypnosis skills for relaxing people quickly.

One of the bugbears that each party is addressing for the upcoming election is the concept of HAI's or Hospital Acquired Infections. So far the politicians have been mainly concentrating on MRSA, but this is not the only thing that you can catch in hospital.

I've just come from a job where a 95 year old female, who had spent a week in hospital for a blood clot on the leg, was suffering from some difficulty in breathing.

The patient had been discharged from the local hospital yesterday, and during the night had developed laboured breathing, a cough and a feeling of tightness in the chest.

Upon examination it seemed that they pain wasn't related to any form of cardiac cause, the tightness was worse when she breathed in, she had a slight temperature, and coupled with the cough and no history of heart problems it seemed like a simple chest infection.

The patient and her daughter were happy with this provisional diagnosis, but were glad that she would be going to hospital for some more tests.

But then the daughter asked me where her mother could have caught her chest infection.

And I really didn't want to say "from the hospital".

I imagine that the ward from which the patient had been discharged had one or more people with a chest infection. Having worked in a hospital I know that a lot of patients, and their visitors don't cover their mouths when they cough, and it seems completely reasonable that this is where the patient caught this infection.

It is probably unrelated to nurse or doctor hygiene (as these sorts of infection are often airborne), but instead due to something as simple as someone not covering their mouth when coughing. It might not have been another patient - hospital wards see a lot of visitors, including small children who are constantly exposed to, and incubating infections.

It seems to me that a lot of hospital infections could be cut if patient visitors didn't treat the ward like some form of hotel, tracking their infections in and out of the community, and generally acting like the rules of hygiene don't apply to them. I'm a big fan of restricted visiting for the majority of cases - and is there really any reason for children to be dragged around a hospital at all hours of the day.

It used to drive me barmy when I was running a ward.

But medical staff do need to improve their hand washing.

Only a short post today as I’m answering all the emails and comments that I’ve recently got.  So if you’ve emailed me and don’t get a reply sometime today – then I probably didn’t get it.

As a ‘homage’ (Read: Total ripoff) of Memoirs of an Urban Vigilante a City of Heroes player who writes an exceptionally funny blog about the game, I present to you my new City of Heroes (UK, Union Server) character – “The Big White Taxi”.

So called because it is the self appointed nickname for the Ambulance Service.

A Big hello to B3ta, for what is probably the nicest write up I’ve ever read.

Thanks Rob, you are way too nice for someone putting together one of the sickest most interesting weekly mail-outs I know of.

 The first job of my last shift was to a “BBA, not breathing”, a ‘BBA’ is a ‘Born Before Arrival’, basically someone has given birth at home and the baby has arrived before the ambulance gets there.  The ‘not breathing’ means that…ummm…  the baby isn’t breathing.

It’s the sort of job I don’t like doing, dead children are no fun and have a habit of playing on my mind for a day or so. 

I got there quick, even though a bus wanted to play ‘chicken’ with me, and I was met by the father outside the house, and he didn’t look that upset – actually he didn’t look upset at all.

I moved as quickly as I can with all my kit into the house (at a fast stroll), and found a crying baby and a relieved looking midwife.

The delivery was planned to be at home, which is why the midwife was there  – but cord was around the babies neck, and the delivery kit that the midwife had was missing a few vital supplies (cord clamps if I remember right), the midwife had called us, and then after having a rummage down her bag, had found the claps and delivered the baby.

So, a false alarm – but a happy false alarm at that.

Rumours that I asked the father what the babies date of birth was so I could fill out my paperwork are malicious, and entirely true…