Sorry Father!

Today the parishioners of our old church and the new one have been told of my husbands transfer, at last it is out in the open, but that isn't what I want to talk about, I want to steal a little bit of the sermon!! Stealing from a priest. . . . ! There is an old saying that goes.. Why worry about loads of things, there is no need, after all you only need to worry about two things... being healthy or being ill, and if you are healthy you don't need to worry! If you are ill you only need to worry about two things..... if you will get better or if you will die! If you get better there is nothing to worry about, if you die there are only two things to worry about..... if you will go to heaven or if you will go to hell! If you go to heaven there is nothing to worry about, if you go to hell you will be so busy chatting to all your friends you wont have time to worry anyway! So there you have it. Don't worry be happy.

The Heart of the Matter

So there was this guy, he was 74 years old, bit over weight and having a massive MI (heart attack) and My crew mate and I had to transfer him from one hospital to a different one so that he could have stents fitted into his heart. To cut a long story short, he had suffered a stroke a while ago which meant he couldn't have the usual (blood) clot busting drugs as they may induce another stroke, . . . which as he is already in trouble with his heart wouldn't be the most sensible idea! So, . . here we are transporting him to another hospital. On arrival we take him through to the Cath lab where the procedure is to be performed, transfer him off the trolley onto the operating table (yes the team were scrubbed up and ready to roll) Then the Mr. in charge turns to us and said "Would you like to watch?" Good grief,! we went and sat behind the leaded glass and watched as he put local anaesthetic around the groin and then inserted a thin catheter up into a blood vessel straight into his heart! not only were we seeing it live but we had a view of the inside of the heart as the dye was pumped through, and could clearly see the blockage! The Mr. inflated a balloon in the area of the blockage then inserted a stent (small metal tube which looked like a roll of barbed wire!) this all took about 45 minutes then when the last lot of dye was pumped through we were able to see the whole hearts blood supply and no sign of the blockage at all. We were both amazed by the whole procedure, none the less because during the whole thing the Mr. had been talking to the patient who was completely awake....!! Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to view this life saving procedure and good luck Harry here's to a full recovery.

yin and yang

I was going to post a photo of my lovely flowers but I have decided to wait until they have opened out more.
Today I was working out of my normal station but with a different crew mate, our first job was a resus, (of course it was... we have worked together twice and our first job was the same that day too!) A middle aged lady passed away on a railway station. We did everything we could for her, there was a car and two double manned ambulances so we were well crewed up, sadly we were still unable to do enough. Sometimes, as sad as it inevitably is, it is just our time.
It was time of another sort in the late hours of last night. My second grandchild was born weighing 7lb 15oz he is a beautiful healthy boy named Jack and I can't wait to have a cuddle with him!
As one life passes another begins.. .. .. .. ..
yin yang

Hissy fits and flowers

• 

• 0610 hrs arrive on station to find there are already two day crew there!

• 0630 hrs discuss who is the one who got it wrong

• 0635 hrs check the online schedule

• 0640 hrs throw toys out of pram when my shift has been given out as overtime!

• 0700 hrs ring scheduling, create like mad have a hissy fit.

• 0705 hrs get offered a shift at a station five Minutes from home!

• 0740 hrs get run off road by white van man texting!

• 0742 hrs check damage.. hole in tyre pranged bumper!

• 0745 hrs ring RAC

• 0750 hrs ring police

• 0830 hrs RAC changes tyre having drilled out random locking nut on (bald) spare tyre

• 0900 hrs go buy a new tyre for £64 (glad I was in uniform!)

• 0930 hrs set off again for work!

• 1020 hrs after getting stuck at two slow sets of traffic lights arrive at station
• 
  
• 1055 hrs crew mate gets to station after being on a job using the car
• 
  
• 1115 hrs take car to another station to swap it for an ambulance
  

• 1150 hrs get back with ambulance look in back!!!! Oh boy

• 1200 hrs have second hissy fit at the dirty linen and blood in the ambulance

• 1203 hrs clean ambulance

• 1230 hrs take vehicle to get fuel as it was left with less than a quarter of a tank!
• 1234 hrs ring line manager as fuel card is incorrect!!!!

• 1244 hrs line manager arrives, pay for fuel
• 
  
• 1259 hrs return to base for a meal break!

• 1505 hrs cover at the local hospital

• 1512 hrs Job outside the post office, transport to hospital

• 1620 hrs cover 8 miles away

• 1625 hrs Job behind super market backing up car.

• 1639 hrs Transport to hospital

• 1644 hrs get tooted at by husband and his watch in their fire truck as I go to the hospital

• 1730 hrs chat to two friends outside A&E

• 1745 hrs return to base

• 1758 hrs cuppa on station with two other crews

• 1830 hrs End of shift

• 1835 hrs drive to mechanics to collect husband after he left his car there for its MOT tomorrow

• 1901 hrs fish and chips for dinner thanks to my lovely husband

• 1912 hrs surprise box of flowers from my lovely Northern Bird

• WHAT A LOVELY END TO A DAY THAT STARTED OFF SO BADLY!

Mud, Mash and Mustard

MUD: After having some quite nice weather recently, and when it has rained it hasn't been much (well here anyway) This morning it was throwing it down! I got wet just going from the front door to the car, so when I got to the yard I was soaked before I had done anything! I put mouse out without a rug though as her stable is full of hair from her shedding her winter coat. I got to the field and let her go, the entrance of the field is just one enormous puddle of mud thanks to the downpour and the fact that three horses go in and out twice a day.
MUSTARD: Back home Litlun and I did a few bits of cooking and laundry then when it was lunch time Litlun had some Philadelphia and bits and bobs whilst I had some veggie hot dogs with mustard, well I think I may have put a little bit too much on the bread as it felt like a fire at the top of my nose, it took my breath away for a few moments, soo nice though.
MASH: Bangers and mash for my lot for dinner it saves me having to think about what to cook.

Kids!

I took Litlun to the Dr this morning, she was very nice and did all the things that you would expect of a Dr. the upshot is that Litlun will have to have a blood test and a twenty four hour ECG tape done. Kids don't they make you worry!
When we got back we decided to make a cheese, onion and potato pie, Litlun made the pastry and pretty much made the whole pie single handed, (We had it for dinner and it was lovely!) Kids don't they make you proud!
Having made the pie we went to the cinema, thanks to Beth for getting us a couple of tickets. Don't you love your kids!

ECG

This morning, having put Mouse out I went to the museum as I do every Monday and Friday that I am not working. As its half term we had half term activities as I work with the horses we were giving wagon rides, the old fella and the film star were doing the wagon whilst the little fella stayed on the yard for people to see and make a fuss of. The rain held off until about half past two so we managed to make a little money for the museum.
Once I had finished I mucked out Mouse, put fresh water haylage and food in her stable then brought her in for the night.
As we were eating dinner Litlun mentioned that she had been having palpitations which had lasted for five minutes and caused her to be breathless, this worried me a little as she is only 14 years old.
I decided that this was bothering me enough to take her down to the ambulance station and do an ECG. Well what it showed and what it said contradicted its self, (although I have never done an ECG on a child before) I printed off two twelve leads and two traces, tomorrow we are going to get an appointment with our GP just to be on the safe side.

North to north

Today is the Northern Birds last day down here, she is going home this evening. We went to church this morning then had a relaxed lunch of cheese, pickled onions, chutney, salad and ciabatta bread. then having put Mouse to bed, Litlun and I took the Northern Bird to London to catch her train home... Well it wasn't quite that easy for her, we got her to the train station on time but then there was a chemical fire somewhere close to the railway lines which held the train up... she ended up being about an hour late home. We missed you as soon as you went Hun, looking forward to the next visit, either you back here or me to you. Take care.

Heads I win, Tails you loose

Today is the last full day that the Northern Bird is here (Tomorrow she leaves to return to her home and family). So after a rather late start and putting Mouse out we wondered what we should do. It took us ages to decide but in the end we decided that we would follow the directions of a 2p.. yes you read that right! we decided that when we got to the roundabout heads we turn right and tails we turn left, then quite a way into our journey we decided that heads we follow brown tourist signs or tails we keep to the green signs a while longer. The upshot of this rather random "adventure" was that we ended up at the D Day Museum we spent a long time looking round at an 81.6 meter embroidery called the Overlord Tapestry and watching a short film, further into the museum were displays of things found around at the time, ration books and the ARP kits photos and clothing then some vehicles, a tank a motorbike a landing craft to name a few. Having seen around we then headed off for a late lunch before heading home, via the supermarket to get something for dinner (we didn't spend the 2p though!) I think next time the Northern Bird is down we may have to have a few more heads and tails days... maybe start a little earlier then we can get a few more choices in!

Horsin' around

This morning we got up rather earlier than in the recent few days, as Flower was coming round for the day whilst her mum went to work, sooo we were up at 8 am! (Yes I know that's not early... humour me!) Having got dressed.. yes yes I wasn't dressed then either! Where was I, oh yes.. having got dressed we all went down to the stables and put mouse out then mucked out and got her water haylage and feed ready for when she comes in tonight, this done back we came for some breakfast, followed by the second of our horsey fixtures of the day The Big Boys, I took Flower and the Northern Bird, and the dog down to the museum to meet the big boys. The Old fella was on the yard today which was nice as it meant that they got to meet my favorite of the three..(did I say favorite, of course I don't have favorites........) we all made a fuss of him and took some photos then wandered down to the field to see the other two, well as it was rather misty today we didn't see very much of them as they thought I wanted to get them in to work them so they stayed at the furthest end of the field. Crafty things. Having wandered around for a while we then moved on to the third horse type thing, we drove to a hill where there is a statue of the head of a horse called Artemis set on the top, the head is huge and cast in metal, he looked extremely impressive today as there was no back drop other than the surrounding mist. Whilst we were there a couple of people turned up with about six large dogs, two rottweilers, two shar pei a mastiff and a Newfoundland, these dogs surrounded my dog who is only a small hill collie, she submitted (wouldn't you!!) then they all just wandered about together. It was really nice that she was able to mingle with them all as she is normally not happy being around that many dogs she doesn't know. We again took some photos then walked back down the hill to the car where we drove to pizza hut, this is something of a tradition as when ever the Northern Bird comes down to stay we do, at some point have to have a pizza hut meal, usually the buffet!! yummy. The last Horse event of the day was obviously to put Mouse to bed again, all in all a very horsey day.

Attenzione Allo Spazio

Or Mind the Gap.
Today the Northern Bird and I went to London by train, this also meant we had to go on the underground! every time we reached a station the announcer said mind the gap and it reminded me of when we were in Italy (the kids were cracked up at Allo Spazio!!!)
Anyway we decided to go to Madame Tussuad's. We wandered around and had our photos taken with loads of the rich and famous! We also saw a 4D film whilst we were there, then wandered along the Thames back towards St Paul's, had some dinner in a Pizza parlour then caught the train home again.
The sun shined all day yet again.

Mixed up day

Today is the first day that the Northern Bird is here.
Unfortunately the first thing we had to do today was not a nice thing!
My lovely Hedgehog is still very ill and now hasn't eaten for four days, even with the vets intervention on Monday. So sadly we have to take her to the vets to have her put down, although it is very sad and I don't want this to happen, I know she won't pull through and that a slow death is not what I want for her.
After this we went to mums then took the dogs for a walk on the beach which was nice, bright sunny and windy but nice.
we came home had dinner then thanks to Beth, we got free tickets to go and see Gnomeo and Juliet
in 3D we took Litlun with us, and thanks to Beths discount we had some nachos and popcorn too.
A nice end to a mixed day.
Still London tomorrow.
RIP Twiglet x

Today!

TODAY!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Worry

Today I took my APH to the vet in the knowledge that I wouldn't be bringing her home again, I knew she had come to a point where she would have to be put down. I brought her home!!! The vet gave her two injections, one an anti inflammatory pain killer the other some antibiotics. She then gave her some water just under the skin (sub cut) to help with the dehydration. She has 48 hours to start to perk up. The vet also gave me some food for her, so as well as her usual food she has this to try, its high in protein and fat to try and boost her calories and get her back on track. Please let it work.

One

Man or Machine.

I have just seen an article it can be found in the "Mail online" I am certainly NOT putting a link to it as it is so one sided and ridiculous that I don't want it here! It says that a woman died somewhere up north because a crew were on their meal break and this half an hour was protected so they couldn't be used! The Coroner thought it was disgusting that this should happen, the crew should have been sent. Yes it is dreadful that a crew were sent from further and the woman died, But, the coroner goes on to say that she would have died anyway but Ambulance crews should be disturbed! I would welcome this person on my ambulance for a set of four twelve hour shifts! I would like (Her/Him, lets say her for now) Her to see that the minute we start we are out, that we are sent to a pile of rubbish in 9 out of 10 jobs and IF we get a meal break you are damned right we are going to be undisturbable we have to get some food and rest we are not machines. If we were not sent to non emergencies because the general public "PAY YOUR WAGES YOU KNOW" the jobs would not get stacked and the crews might be able to grab a bite here and there and then agree to be disturbed on their UNPAID meal break. I have been to several jobs where I have been told "I pay your wages you know" as if I don't pay any tax!! I have taken to telling them that they should give me a pay rise then! I have also been to more jobs than I care to mention where there are several cars sitting in the drive, but "if they go in by ambulance they get seen sooner" this is very misguided, every patient who is taken in to hospital is triaged, which means they are assessed and those in greater need are seen first, in fact I would go so far as to say, if the crew is told that they have been called for this reason they will tell the hospital staff who have their own way of dealing with it. What a waste of Tax Payers money and a misuse of an Emergency ambulance, its no wonder there are calls stacking and people dying! It is also no wonder that the crews are absolutely knackered and so are choosing to be undisturbable for their half an hour unpaid meal break... if they actually manage to get it in the first place, many crews every day do not get a meal break, so Mrs Coroner, who spends half her day at least in a nice cosy office with tea making facilities, a toilet and breaks when ever you wish, Oh and probably an hour for lunch next time you knock us for being undisturbable just try and remember we are NOT Machines we are Human.

Sun Dance

WHOEVER IS PRAYING FOR RAIN PACK IT IN.

I have a friend coming to stay for the week and it would be great if we could have a bit of sunshine.
Also the priest from our church (woop woop I can say that now!! now we are really at this church) is going to Walsingham for a clergy retreat it would be nice for him to have some good weather too as it is such a lovely place and it would be even better in the sunshine
For goodness sake pray for A bit of Sun, or if you don't pray, do a little sun dance!

Two

three

APH

My APH (African Pygmy Hedgehog) who is only two years and three months old is unwell and I am worried that she won't pull through! This comes on the back of Angel being killed by a fox last week... things are very grim at the moment, I really don't want to loose her too. She is very quirky very cute and very friendly although she won't sit still on my lap she has to climb as high up me as she can. I have given her an extra water pot at the other end of her vivarium, and put her favorite food which is egg, in as well as her normal cat kibble, strangely she has never been fond or meal worms. Keep everything crossed for her.

four

Five

Living and Dying

Last night, as with most nights now, once we left the ambulance station to go on cover we then only saw it again for half an hour before the shift ended, just enough time to have a meal break. The night before, we were sent from one cover point to another, some of which were pointless for instance within 4 minutes we had been asked to go to a town 20 minutes north of us, then a town 1 hour south east, then again to another place 40 minutes to the west..... to be given a job in the first town we had been asked to cover. Well hows my carbon foot print??? And with fuel prices as they are..... Back to last night, we were busy as I have said, but two of the jobs "got to me" not in a bad way they just stayed with me until the end of the shift, maybe a little longer seeing as I have decided to blog about them... Living: A young man of 16, intentional overdose. This very unhappy lad had taken, not a large quantity of paracetamol but enough to seriously damage his health (and that is less tablets than you may think), he had also been self harming by cutting his arms and deliberately burning himself, he had a history over the last two years of depression and had been in and out of a specialist hospital trying to get some help. He made me feel quite useless, there was nothing I could do for this boy other than take him in to hospital to get the treatment which will stop the paracetamol from doing too much damage. (there is a limit to what this treatment is able to do, its purely luck that he hadn't taken too many, and also that we got to him within a short time frame) He told me he wanted to die, he was bold and explained himself clearly. . . unless you have experienced this you wont realise just how shocking it is to hear a child speak in this way. Dying: Midnight, a 92 year old man with severe shortness of breath, difficulty in breathing. This gentleman despite his age, had just returned home from a meeting at his local club. he had, for a couple of days been a little chesty and seeing as he had suffered two bouts of pneumonia in the past his wife decided that tomorrow she would take him to the doctor or at least get the doctor to make a house call. Once home from the club his breathing got bad and she decided to call for us, we could hear his chest sounds without a stethoscope. His lungs were not able to process enough oxygen for him (sats of 70%) we gave him some medication which we add to oxygen to help open the airways (salbutamol neb) and managed to raise his oxygen levels to 84% then got him onto the stretcher and prioritised him into the nearest hospital. Blue lights all the way! About halfway there he began to deteriorate nothing I did was keeping his oxygen levels up, more medication (Salbutamol and Ipatropium Bromide) slight increase then rapid deterioration. I had to start using a bag and mask to breath for him, but rapidly his heart gave up the struggle, I asked Tepic to pull over and he came into the back and helped with CPR and getting paddles onto the patients chest before calling the hospital to upgrade the priority. At the hospital the staff were ready and waiting, opening the back doors as soon as we had stopped. Sadly for all our hard work and all the drug intervention both in the ambulance and at the hospital this gentleman who was still living life to the full at 92 years old passed away. Yes he had lived a long life, but he was still enjoying it getting out and participating. I said to my crew mate as we were clearing the debris of our efforts out of the ambulance "I hate it when they go off on you!" he agreed, turning up at a patient and getting on with CPR is much easier than having to work on one who you have been chatting to! Just one other thing, Tepic, if you ever read this, when the patient took the knife out from under the mattress last night, thanks for hearing the word knife and appearing so fast!

six

Seven

Down under.

Isn't it awful when you hear of all the hurricanes, floods and bush fires they are getting in Australia. Every day this week when the news comes on there seems to be something else. I have family in an area called Sky they moved out a few years back and then about a year ago started to build their own bungalow just as they wanted it, each of the four children having their own brand new bedroom and my Sister in law getting to have exactly what she wanted for her kitchen and bathrooms, a dream home! My Brother in law is a carpenter so he knew exactly what he was doing, each month on facebook my Sister in law would post some more photos so that we could follow the buildings progress. Then four months ago they were able to move into their brand new house, My Father in law flew out and stayed with them for a while and the kids all got settled into their new schools. Three days ago on facebook more photos were posted by my Sister in law, this time it was flood water.. just the road, then creeping closer to the property! it looked as if they were on a river bank! several photos on and the whole community is helping to sandbag the doors, and the fire service is in the street. Over here in England my family was watching the daily photo updates hoping the water stayed out of the brand new bungalow. It did, as fast as it appeared it disappeared. Their lovely new home was safe and dry. Lets hope that Australia can have a little calm now, they seem to have had far more than their fair share of natural disasters!

Eight

MY FAMILY FIRST

When things are ticking along nicely I don't take much notice of how when or even why they could change. Its not till it happens that I suddenly have to re think things to either make it make sense or even to sort it out (if its a permanent thing) into some kind of order.
This said, its all very well if its a trivial thing it can be done in the blink of an eye normally, even for someone with very little in the way of brains like myself, and I can usually do this even when there are quite a few trivial things going on.
The crunch happens when its not trivial, its something I care about and which means something to me the way it is/was! And now its changed or being changed into something so totally unrecognisable that its scary! I wonder if I'm in a dream sometimes as other people seem to be happily going with the flow and here am I desperately swimming up stream clutching at broken branches!
I have some good friends, in fact I have some very good friends who are great when it comes to being a shoulder to cry on or an ear for me to scream into. The problem comes when I am not allowed to tell anybody what is eating away at me because the body concerned has said not to until it has been investigated and sorted out. Well that's just great... and to cap it all I and those who are "in the loop" know that the body concerned will walk away smelling of coffee and fresh bread whilst behind them lays a trail of destruction and confusion. Well mark my words, when this is all over if that does happen I for one will not just sit back and watch that happen. I am not the calm placid person my husband is... I am feisty and gobby... no one who messes with me and mine should expect to come out of it unscathed!
You will be able to read it all here for a start. My words and my opinions.
MY FAMILY FIRST

Nine

Ten..

Thank Crunchie its Friday

.....The week end is here!

Working together.

There is so much hate in the world, colour, class, religion, race you name it... At this time there are violent clashes in Egypt and it is surely going to bring the country to its knees, as shops close and tourism is grinding to a stand still. My husband has been doing some surfing of the net today, he came off nights and has had a day chilling out. He sent me a link and it was one that made me smile, We are all human, but in times of trouble such as is happening in Egypt we all seem to regress to animals barbarians, Neanderthals... against our fellow human.
The photo above shows a group of Christian Egyptians protecting their fellow Muslim Egyptians from the opposing protesters whilst they prated on Friday during the unrest in the square in Cairo. Recently the Egyptian Muslims acted as a human shield during the Coptic Christmas eve mass a while back. I think this has to show that it is just the extremists that cause the trouble... in any colour, class, religion, race... for the most, people will happily live side by side. What a pity there have to be people who can't allow others to have a different opinion.

A real live John Doe....!!

Err.. well.. sort of!
I was remembering back today to a job I did with Denise several years ago.
We were called to a male unconscious, en route it was up graded to a full cardiac and respiratory arrest. On arrival a young girl flagged us down, I grabbed the response bag whilst Denise got the defibrillator.
Sitting upright on a sofa in the lounge was a 59 - 60 year old male, clearly not breathing.
Whilst, doing CPR and wiring him up to the defib I asked the girl to write down his name date of birth and any medical problems he had. She looked at me blankly and said he only came to collect something he purchased on line from my mum, she doesn't even know his name, just a log in name.
Just then a second crew turned up, one of them helped us with the resus whilst the other went out to the mans car to see if there was anything in it. His pockets contained nothing but an envelope with the money for the purchase in it.
The police turned up as we had requested them as it was a sudden death, (at that time we hadn't realised we had no idea who he was).
The police grinned, we will just run the number plate they said... when they came back they said the car was a hire car registered to a woman who they couldn't trace!
We took the man into hospital, sadly he passed away.
What was even sadder was that he wasn't named for a week. It took that long to find out who he was.

15

In fifteen days the Northern bird will be wending her way south to spend some time with ME. With all the bad things that have been going on this week it will be fab to have some fun and catch up with her. I think its time you moved south Mrs! Oh the trouble we would get into if she did move back down. Fun fun fun. See you on the fifteenth Northern bird, if you have any requests of things you would like to do or see, you better let me know! I have some but there's always room for change. xx