I'm trying to stretch out my blogposts, I have a couple of jobs to write about but with my knee I'm not too sure how long I'll be off work – I'm writing this in the 'trauma clinic' waiting room, wondering what the doctor will say about my knee.
We were at the Royal London hospital, I was working with someone who is fairly new to the job. I like working with new people, they tend to not have any 'bad habits' and I can sound like the voice of experience. My crewmate was one of those steady guys, he'd been out of training school for some time and I could rely on him not to do anything daft on scene, or on the back of the ambulance.
As I mentioned, we were at the Royal London hospital having taken in the latest 'difficulty in breathing' that was, in reality, a runny nose. The whole shift had been like this, 'nothing' jobs that were simple walk-on, walk-off affairs.
“Attention all cars, attention all cars – ambulance required for a Bus vs Lorry RTA in Barking”.
I was driving, my crewmate was the one looking after patients, he looked a bit excited.
“Might be a good job”, he said.
“No mate”, I replied, “We'll turn up and it'll be a fender bender”.
So we offered up for the job, although it was miles away, and sped off.
During the drive there I could hear another crew getting sent to the same location, then the location of the accident changed – luckily I had planned this into my route to the scene, so we came across the accident first.
The bus has driven, at slow speed, into a JCB digger. The bus window was broken but there wasn't any other damage and as my crewmate jumped out he was just as quickly waved off – there were no injuries. We called Control and told them to cancel the other ambulance.
“Told you it would be nothing”, I said to my crewmate, “It's against the laws of the Universe for me to get an interesting job…”.
I got called to see the doctor halfway through writing this, essentially he is playing 'wait and see' and I have a repeat appointment in four weeks, which is fine by me as I don't want people cutting into my knee unless it's really necessary. I've been signed off work for two weeks which means one of two things – (a) I get loads of writing-type work done, or more likely (b) I get bored out of my skull. I have however learned why people who have canes on TV are always grumpy – it just flows naturally.
hi tom, my name is paddy, work for Shropshire/West mids ambulance service as a tech, just finished your book, top marks mate, could not but it down.ive been off sick for the past six months with a complete rupture of my anterior cruciate ligament, had surgery week before xmas, hope you get better soon mate.
keep up the good work
paddy
Now in the old days we would send people off to the seaside for convalesence to help them recover.As you have four weeks to spare, can you not have a pre-convalesence break away somewhere?
You could lie on a beach somewhere (no strain to the knee there) and you could even have a think about what you are going to put in 'da book part two'
We can forgive you being grumpy though, your army of readers out here are very used to all your changing moods and love ya anyway 🙂
January, bum time to be off work, dull grey and boring, I hope some one brings you a big box of chocolates and a bunch of spring flowers!Think of all those never never land jobs that you can do, sort out the kitchen draws, date sort all your old photographs (pre digital) or pay your tax bill.
On second thoughts, may be picking up drunks out of the gutter is more entertaining!
Get well soon.
Was once on escort duty for patient transfer from one hospital to another.On the way back we saw another ambulance on the opposite side of the motorway with a casualty sitting up with a blanket round him.
This caused some lively converstation along the likes of “some people get all the interesting jobs” ,”should he be sitting up?”etc which I in my innocence (yes, it was a long time ago) thought highly amusing.
The comment verification is chnup, looks like chin up if you look at it quickly, how appropriate!
I hope that LAS don't have the same ridiculous rule that (I've heard) we have, and you're not allowed to go away on holiday if you're off sick. Even if it's a physical injury or a mental health issue.Pah!
get well soon and try to have a nice break!
I thought you were a world of war
crackcraft player? Surely that gives you plenty to do? 😉there is lots of things you can do,one comment talked about pre- digital pics, why not find a some you like to have digitally and scan them in. see if the bbc has a need for a blogger to talk to. get copies of casualty and make notes on what is wrong with the medical side of the programme, that should keep you going for years. HeheBest one i can think of is, find way to spend time with the love of your life, even if that going round and making a meal for when she arrives home from a long shift. Hope you comfortable
I like the sound of that last one!Laura 🙂
I thought you would.
Typical Laura, anything for an easy life ;-)(love ya really).
Having nothing to do is great for maybe the first three days and then it eats you. Try and keep positive and focused that you *will* get back to work within the forseeable future.This is much easier said than done.
Hope the knee gets better soon, but not before you want it too. enjoy the time off by drinking, swearing and falling over in public. It seems to be all the rage these days.
enough about you – what about us poor readers having to do without your blogs while you are
skiving/canoodling/eating proper healthy foodconvalescing and doing your physio. How about inviting some guest etms/paramedics to fill up the spaces and keep us addicts hooked?Cracking idea, where has kevinmillhill gone? It's a wee while since he posted; Ive missed his little gems of wisdom and wise words, has his solar powered PC gone into hibernation?
Busiest Christmas for ambulances.Why are we not surprised?
Mr. Reynolds. Do you recall some months ago you were going to blog every day? How you were going to change the format and I told you not to because something like this can happen and leave you short of material? 'If it ain't broke don't fix it.' was the phrase I used.Nuff said.