Respiratory Distress

As I was text last by yesterdays day crew telling me that my ambulance was unmanned last night so I didn't have to take over from anyone, I had an extra half an hour in bed, what joy! The roads between my house and the ambulance station were so icy the back end of the car spun out which was a bit scary, but I arrived safely and my crew mate turned up safely shortly afterwards. We had a slow start to the day and remained on station for almost two hours before the first job, to a doctors surgery for a 48 year old with chest pain, it turned out that the surgery had a broken ECG machine so all we did was a 12 lead ECG and left the patient to be treated by the doctor, then almost straight away we had a transfer from one hospital to another with a lady 35 weeks pregnant, for a special care bed, this took us out of our locale, which is always worrying but as we had to return the nurse escort we managed to return and get our first meal break. After which we were sent on cover and from there we were sent to a man who according to the computer had accidentally slit both his wrists with a Stanley knife, when I read this I got straight on the radio to inform control that yes I could see how you might be able to slit one wrist but two!! Oh please I told them we would hang back and await the arrival of the police. I go to work on the strict understanding that I come home again, anyone who cuts their own wrists would have no problems doing similar to a stranger! The police duly arrived and it turned out he had only cut one whilst cutting up rags to polish his car, we took him in as it did require attention. From here we were sent to a 80 year old with severe shortness of breath, after waiting for him to get off the bus that took him to the day centre he attended daily, we got him onto the ambulance, his breathing rate was fast is oxygen saturation was very low and his lower legs were swollen and pitting, (when you apply pressure the dent stays in the leg) I did a full set of obs and we prioritised him into the resus area where there is a higher level of care than the regular majors area. I thought he had LVF a heart problem, later the doctor told me that it was actually complete heart failure. We returned to base for our second break but only managed to get half of it before getting another job which would definitely make us late off! A 56 year old in respiratory distress, we arrived at the property to find the ambulance surrounded by six of the most enormous dogs. "They're fine" the wife said "I have heard that before!" I replied cautiously getting out and trying to keep my work bag between me and the dogs, and to be fair they were all excellently behaved. Inside the house our patient was clearly in distress unable to take a good breath in or out and panicking which was making his situation worse, we nebulised him (pushed an airway dilatory drug into him using oxygen which aided him, we decided to take him into hospital as when we took the oxygen away he was back at square one. Back at base the night crew were waiting for us, just an hour and fifteen minutes late off then.